Protective role of cyclosporine in experimental unilateral blunt testicular trauma: evaluation by ³¹P MR spectroscopy

Abstract

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is a useful tool to study the anatomy of the testis while ³¹P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) provides a non-invasive alternative method to demonstrate the metabolic status of testes. This study was designed to test whether the protective role of cyclosporine in experimental unilateral blunt testicular trauma (UBTT) could be assessed by ³¹P MRS. Male Wistar rats ( n=30) aged 20 days were randomised into group I (sham surgery), group II (UBTT) and group III (UBTT and cyclosporine for 7 days). Contralateral testicles of 5 rats from each group was evaluated by ³¹P MRS at 30 and 60 days of age and phosphomonoesters (PM), phosphodiesters (PD), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels were measured. At 60 days of age the PM/ATP ratio was 0.32±0.08 in group I whereas it was 0.68±0.31 in the group II ( p < 0.05). Group III rats showed PM, PD and PM/ATP ratios similar to the controls. In conclusion, it is observed that UBTT causes contralateral testicular damage which could be prevented by short-term cyclosporine treatment and ³¹P MRS is an excellent modality for such an evaluation.