title: Honey and metformin ameliorated diabetes-induced damages in testes of rat; correlation with hormonal changes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The global prevalence of diabetes mellitus is on rise. Diabetes-induced oxidative stress has been known to affect liver, pancreas, kidney and reproductive organs pathologically. Honey is a natural product of bee with antioxidant properties.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Current study aimed to analyze the protective effects of Metformin (MF) alone and MF+ natural honey co-administration on diabetes-induced histological derangements in testis of rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty six, mature male Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups including; control, honey-dosed non-diabetic, diabetes-induced (65 mg/kg, single dose), honey-administrated diabetic (1.0 g/kg/day), Metformin-received diabetic (100 mg/kg/day), Metformin and honey-co-treated diabetic which were followed 40 days. The animals were anesthetized by diethyl ether and the blood samples were collected. The serum levels of testosterone, Insulin, LH and FSH analyzed using antibody enzyme immunoassay method. The testicular tissues were dissected out and underwent to histological analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The biochemical analyses revealed that the diabetes resulted in significantly reduced testosterone (p<0.01), LH and FSH (P<0.01, 0.001) levels in serum. Light microscopic analyses showed remarkable (p<0.01) reduction in seminiferous tubules diameter (STD), spermiogenesis index (SPI) and thickness of the epithelium in the diabetic group versus control and co-treated groups. Simultaneous administration of the honey with MF could fairly up-regulate testosterone, LH and FSH levels. The animals in metformin and honey-treated group exhibited with improved tubules atrophy, elevated spermiogenesis index and germinal epithelium thickness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data indicated that co-administration of Metformin and honey could inhibit the diabetes-induced damages in testicular tissue. Moreover, the simultaneous administration of metformin and honey up-regulated the diabetes-reduced insulin, LH, FSH and testosterone levels. This article extracted from M.Sc. thesis. (Ozra Nasrolahi).
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
authors.forename: Ozra
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nasrolahi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
authors.forename: Fereshteh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Khaneshi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rahmani
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
authors.forename: Mazdak
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Razi
keywords: Diabetes; Honey; Metformin; Spermatogenesis; Testis