Histological study of the effect of experimentally induced unilateral torsion/detorsion on testis of adult albino rats and role of rosuvastatin supplementation

Background: Testicular torsion is a serious condition that necessitates rapid surgical intervention to save the affected testicle.Aim of the study: This study was performed to throw light on the histological changes that might occur in ipsilateral testis as a result of unilateral testicular torsion and to evaluate the possible role of rosuvastatin as adjuvant therapy during surgical repair.Materials and methods: Twenty-four healthy adult albino rats were equally divided into three groups: control, torsion/detorsion (TD), and rosuvastatin-treated T/D. At the end of the experiment, all rats were anesthetized and the ipsilateral testes were dissected out and processed for light and electron microscopic examinations. Diameters of seminiferous tubules and height of their epithelial lining were estimated morphometrically and statistically analyzed.Results: Naked eye observation of TD testes revealed discoloration, as they became dark red in color with many superficial, dilated, corrugated blood vessels in comparison with the other groups. Examination of TD testes revealed many distorted, shrunken seminiferous tubules. Others contained exfoliated germ cells in their lumina. The germinal epithelium was reduced in thickness and appeared separated, vacuolated, and rested on irregular basement membrane. The interstitium was widened and contained homogenous acidophilic material and many thick-walled blood vessels. Wide intercellular spaces were observed between the germinal epithelium. Some spermatids had small shrunken heterochromatic nuclei. Others had distorted acrosomal caps. Sperm mid pieces showed marked detorsion of central axoneme, fibrous sheath, and mitochondrial sheath. Rosuvastatin-treated T/D testes showed apparently normal seminiferous tubules and narrow interstitium containing little acidophilic material. Some tubules showed separated germinal epithelium from basement membrane. Few tubules contained desquamated cells in their lumina. Few intercellular spaces were seen between germ cells. The mid pieces of the sperm showed distorted mitochondrial sheaths. No differences were detected between Leydig cells in different groups.Conclusion: Testicular torsion induced marked histological changes in the ipsilateral testis. Rosuvastatin supplementation before the reperfusion proved to have a potential effect in improving its structure. Hence, it can be recommended under strict clinical observation before surgical intervention in clinical practice