Curcumin ameliorates aging-induced blood-testis barrier disruption by regulating AMPK/mTOR mediated autophagy
Fig 5
Curcumin restores aging-induced disruption of the BTB in mice by activating autophagy in mouse testes injected with D-gal.
The mice were assigned to the control group (administered 200 mg/kg saline), model group (administered 200 mg/kg D-gal), curcumin-treated group (administered 200 mg/kg curcumin + 200 mg/kg D-gal), and rapamycin group (administered 200 mg/kg D-gal + 2 mg/kg RAPA). (A) Western blotting was utilized to detect and quantify the expressions of proteins including p21, p16, Beclin1, LC3, Claudin-4, Claudin-7, Occludin, and ZO-1. (B) Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was conducted to examine the histological alterations within the testes. The upper panels display the modifications in the seminiferous tubules at a 100× magnification (scale bar = 200 μm), while the lower panels present a closer view at a 400× magnification (scale bar = 50 μm). (C) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was employed to visualize autophagic structures in the mouse testis (scale bar = 1 μm), arrows indicate autophagosomes. (D) Tissue immunofluorescence for protein expression and quantification of LC3, Claudin-4, Claudin-7, Occludin, and ZO-1. Data is presented as the mean ±standard error of the mean (SEM). The data are statistically significant between different letters (p<0.05).