Decreased testicular expression of cAMP response element modulator (CREM) in rat with varicocele

This study examines the hypothesis that varicocele would impair the testicular expression of cAMP response element modulator (CREM) in experimental rats. Thirty (30) rats were selected at random, of 20 were operated as varicocele's group; of 10 were for sham-operation as controlled group, testes were removed, fixed and stained in three months. Makler Score was adopted to analyze the bore, limitan's thickness, layer number of cell, the degree of cell's maturity and average score in 200 and 100 seminiferous tubulae, respectively. CREM, HSP60 was determinated by hybridization in situ, the difference between two groups were compared. In varicocele group, seminiferous tubule's bore was decreased (101 +/- 2.2) vs 146 +/- 4.1), limitan became thicker (3.5 +/- 0.1 vs 1.9 +/- 0.2), cell's layer number was reduced (3.0 +/- 0.2 vs 5.5 +/- 0.1), cell's maturity turned to disturbance (3.6 +/- 0.3 vs 4.9 +/- 0.1), the average score was lower than controlled group (8.5 +/- 0.6 vs 16.0 +/- 1.2), they had significant differences (P < 0.001). The testicular CREM expression was significantly lower in varicocele group than in controlled one (VG2.0 +/- 0.32, SoG3.90 +/- 0.32) (p < 0.001), which was located in spermatogenous cell to spermatocyte stage. However, HSP60 expression in VG was higher than in SoG (3.85 +/- 0.3 versus 2.1 +/- 0.32) with significant differences (P < 0.001), the expression located in spermatid. Varicocele could lead to lower testicular CREM expression and breeding sperm functional lesion.