Abstract
Background: The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is a set of peptides, enzymes, and receptors specially
involved in the control of extracellular fluid volume and blood pressure (BP); however, some of its
components have already been identified in the testis, such as angiotensinogen, angiotensin converting
enzyme, and renin.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether renin-angiotensin system blockers have effects
on the testicular morphology of animals fed a high energy density (HED) diet.
Materials and Methods: Male C57BL/6 mice were fed initially a standard chow (SC) or a HED diet.
After 8 weeks, HED animals were randomized into 4 groups, each group receiving one of the following
treatments for the next 6 weeks: HED-A: aliskiren (50 mg/kg/d); HED-E: enalapril (30 mg/kg/d); HED-L:
losartan (10 mg/kg/d); and untreated HED group. The BP was measured biweekly. At the end of
treatment, all animals were killed and the testes were processed for morphometric and stereological
parameters including density of seminiferous tubules per area, density of length and the total length of
the seminiferous tubules, height of the epithelium, and diameter of the seminiferous tubules. Samples
were tested for their homoscedasticity and the differences between the groups were tested by one-way
analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by the Holm-Sidak post-test. In all cases, the significance level
adopted was P ≤ .05.
Results: Compared to SC, HED groups presented an increase in BP, normalized by all RAS blockers.
However, the HED diet caused testis alterations that were not affected by aliskiren or losartan. Only
enalapril maleate was capable of reversing such alterations.
Conclusions: Further studies are still needed to answer why only enalapril was able to reveal the
morphological changes caused by the high energy diet; so enalapril could be suggested as the drug of
choice for patients with previous reproductive dysfunction.