Unilateral testicular torsion: evaluation of bcl-2, p-53 and PCNA expression in contralateral testes

The present study aims to evaluate the histologic as well as apoptotic changes indicated by PCNA, p-53 and bcl-2 expression in the contralateral testes after a period of unilateral testicular torsion of 4 h.

Regarding the histologic changes, while some significant alterations such as complete or incomplete spermatocytic arrest as well as sertoli cell only formation have to some extent been noted after the detorsion procedure, reasonably better preserved histology could be demonstrated following the orchiectomy procedure both in the early and late follow-up. Thus, the orchiectomy procedure was found to be limiting enough on the severity of the histologic changes in the contralateral testes after a certain period of time following the torsion procedure. On the other hand, however, in relation to the apoptotic events indicated by the three markers, while PCNA activity was found to be significantly different depending on the procedure performed (detorsion or orchiectomy), p-53 and bcl-2 positivity did not exhibit any difference in this aspect. Increased PCNA activity (especially after the detorsion procedure) together with marked positivity of p-53 both in the early and late follow-up indicated the increased cell turnover in the contralateral testes, which in turn may be accepted as a sign of increased apoptosis in these testes. In addition to these findings, bcl-2 expression has been found to be consistently negative in all specimens evaluated both in the early and late follow-up.

Taking into account the strong inhibitory effect of bcl-2 during apoptotic events, these findings again support the likelihood of increased apoptosis in the contralateral testes.