Can antioxidants protect against chemotherapy in a rat spermatogonial stem cell line?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Can antioxidants protect against chemotherapy in a rat spermatogonial stem cell line?

AU - Allen, Caroline M.

AU - Lopes, Federica

AU - Mitchell, Rod T.

AU - Spears, Norah

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded by Career Development PhD Scholarship and Children with Cancer UK grant #15-198. R T M’s is supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/S017151/1) in the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health funded by MRC Centre Grant MR/N022556/1. C M A was supported by Career Development PhD Scholarship in Biomedical Sciences funded by the Biomedical Sciences ZJU project. Funding Information: This work was funded by Career Development PhD Scholarship and Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The authors.

PY - 2021/12/7

Y1 - 2021/12/7

N2 - Boys administered chemotherapy to treat cancer are at risk of damage to their healthy testicular tissue, which can lead to infertility in adulthood. Researchers are therefore investigating treatments to protect the testis during cancer treatment. Here, cells originating from rat testicles were cultured for 4 days and exposed to chemotherapy drugs with or without antioxidants for the final 2 days. Antioxidants can reduce cellular damage by inactivating toxic compounds. Here, antioxidants such as melatonin or n-acetylcysteine were tested against chemotherapy agents cisplatin, doxorubicin, or vincristine. Cultures were repeated four times, with cell survival measured at the end of culture. The antioxidants were not damaging and partially protected against cisplatin, although not doxorubicin. Surprisingly, n-acetylcysteine enhanced vincristine-induced damage. The results suggest that using antioxidants to protect the testis could have either beneficial or harmful effects when given alongside different chemotherapy drugs: this is important, considering that patients are often treated with multiple drugs.

AB - Boys administered chemotherapy to treat cancer are at risk of damage to their healthy testicular tissue, which can lead to infertility in adulthood. Researchers are therefore investigating treatments to protect the testis during cancer treatment. Here, cells originating from rat testicles were cultured for 4 days and exposed to chemotherapy drugs with or without antioxidants for the final 2 days. Antioxidants can reduce cellular damage by inactivating toxic compounds. Here, antioxidants such as melatonin or n-acetylcysteine were tested against chemotherapy agents cisplatin, doxorubicin, or vincristine. Cultures were repeated four times, with cell survival measured at the end of culture. The antioxidants were not damaging and partially protected against cisplatin, although not doxorubicin. Surprisingly, n-acetylcysteine enhanced vincristine-induced damage. The results suggest that using antioxidants to protect the testis could have either beneficial or harmful effects when given alongside different chemotherapy drugs: this is important, considering that patients are often treated with multiple drugs.

KW - antioxidants

KW - chemotherapy

KW - fertility preservation

KW - spermatogonial stem cells

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85133251441

U2 - 10.1530/RAF-21-0042

DO - 10.1530/RAF-21-0042

M3 - Article

C2 - 35118413

AN - SCOPUS:85133251441

SN - 2633-8386

VL - 2

SP - L7-L9

JO - Reproduction and Fertility

JF - Reproduction and Fertility

IS - 4

ER -