[Duzhong Butiansu Capsules for improving fertility in male mice]

To investigate the improving effect of Duzhong Butiansu Capsules (DBC) on the fertility of male mice.

Forty-eight 4-week-old SPF male Kunming mice weighing 12－16 g were randomly divided into four groups of equal number, distilled water (DW) control, Shengjing Capsules (SJC), low-dose DBC and high-dose DBC, treated intragastrically with distilled water, SJC at 0.8 g/kg/d, DBC at 0.694 g/kg/d and DBC at 1.388 g/kg/d, respectively, all for 3 weeks. After 2 weeks of treatment, the male mice were mated with female ones at a 2∶1 ratio for 1 week. Then, all the male animals were sacrificed for observation of the morphological changes in the testis and epididymis by HE staining, detection of the sperm count and motility, coefficients of different organs and expression of the androgen receptor (AR) in the testis, measurement of the levels of E2, LH, FSH and T by ELISA, and determination of the concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), creatinine (Cr) and urea nitrogen (BUN) in the serum. At 1 week after mating, the female mice were executed and the number of pregnancies recorded.

The pregnancy rate was significantly higher in the low- and high-dose DBC groups (70% and 75%) than in the DW control (54%). The weight-bearing swimming time was markedly longer in the low-dose DBC than in the DW control group (［394 ± 51］ vs ［173 ± 17］ s, P < 0.01) but exhibited no statistically significant difference between the high-dose DBC (［266 ± 42］ s) and the latter groups (P > 0.05). Remarkable increases were observed in the low-dose DBC group, compared with the DW control group, in the counts of spermatogonia (77.8 ± 5.0 vs 25.7 ± 5.3, P < 0.01), spermatocytes (132.4 ± 8.9 vs 92.5 ± 10.7, P < 0.01) and mature sperm (734 ± 67 vs 481 ± 56, P < 0.01), as well as in both the low- and high-dose DBC groups in the AR expression (P < 0.01). The AST concentration was markedly higher in the high-dose DBC than in the DW control group (［44.2 ± 11.0］ vs ［30.5 ± 13.7］ U/L, P < 0.05), but there were no statistically significant differences between the DW control and the low- or high-dose DBC groups in the levels of serum T, FSH, LH, E2, Cr and BUN (P > 0.05).

Duzhong Butiansu Capsules could improve the fertility of male mice, which has provided some experimental evidence for the clinical application of the medicine.