effects of vitamin-e treatment on catsper genes expression and sperm quality in the testis of the aging mouse

background: catsper genes are a novel family of four sperm-specific calcium channels, which indicate testis-specific expression patterns. despite the crucial role of catsper genes in the male reproduction, very little is known about the factors that regulate their expression. objective: the objective of this study was to investigate the effects of vitamin e treatment on the expression of catsper 1 and catsper 2 genes as well as sperm quality in the aged male mice. materials and methods: twenty four 11-12 months old aged male mice and twenty four 2-3-months old young male mice were randomly divided into four groups. control groups received no injection. the experimental groups of male mice were received intraperitoneal injection of 106 mg/kg vitamin e daily for 35 days. left testis and cauda epididymides from each mouse were collected on the days 21, 28 and 35 following vitamin e treatment and were used for real-time pcr and immunohistochemistry. also, sperm analysis was performed according to the who guidelines given for human sperm examination. data were analyzed using spss software. results: administration of vitamin e improved sperm parameters in the aged as well as young adult male mice. in addition, the expression of catsper genes increased following vitamin e treatment. also, intensity of signal for catsper1 and catsper2 increased in the head and middle piece of sperm in experimental group as compared to those of control ones. conclusion: the vitamin e treatment significantly improved the sperm quality, especially in terms of sperm motility, count and morphology rate. furthermore, catsper genes expression could be up-regulated by the vitamin e treatment.