Antioxidant systems and oxidative stress in the testes

By R. Aitken, Shaun D. Roman. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2008

848 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Spermatogenesis is an extremely active replicative process capable of generating approxi mately 1,000 sperm a second. The high rates of cell division inherent in this process imply correspondingly high rates of mitochondrial oxygen consumption by the germinal epithelium. However, the poor vascularization of the testes means that oxygen tensions in this tissue are low1 and that competition for this vital element within the testes is extremely intense. Since both spermatogenesis2 and Leydig cell steroidogenesis3,4 are vulnerable to oxidative stress, the low oxygen tension that characterizes this tissue may be an important component of the mechanisms by which the testes protects itself from free radical-mediated damage. In addition, the testes contain an elaborate array of antioxidant enzymes and free radical scavengers to ensure that the twin spermatogenic and steroidogenic functions of this organ are not impacted by oxidative stress. These antioxidant defence systems are of major importance because peroxidative damage is currently regarded as the single most important cause of impaired testicular function underpinning the pathological consequences of a wide range of conditions from testicular torsion to diabetes and xenobiotic exposure. This chapter sets out the specific nature of these antioxidant defence systems and also reviews the factors that have been found to impair their activity, precipitating a state of oxidative stress in the testes and impairing the latter’s ability to produce viable spermatozoa capable of initiating and supporting embryonic development.

Subfields: Cell Biology, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Reproductive Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bb6f284670722ae98dc886e4a758d706d324f3fc

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Citations in the corpus

Identifying Toxic Impacts of Metals Potentially Released during Deep-Sea Mining—A Synthesis of the Challenges to Quantifying Risk (2017, methodology): “Synthesis adapted from: Stocker and Keaney (2004), Aitken and Roman (2008), and Martinez-Finley and Aschner (2011). impacts of exposure to dissolved metals specifically in a range of deep sea species, including molluscs and echinoderms that do not inhabit metal-rich environments, and molluscs and…”