Lycium chinense Mill improves hypogonadism via anti-oxidative stress and anti-apoptotic effect in old aged rat model

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the pharmacological effects of goji berry (Lycium chinense P. Mill) in an animal model of late-onset hypogonadism (LOH).

Materials and methods: Thirty 18-month-old male Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats were used as the LOH aged rat model. Rats were divided into five groups: a control group (n = 6), low concentration goji berry extract group (150 mg/kg/day) (n = 6), high concentration goji berry extract group (300 mg/kg/day) (n = 6), low concentration goji berry complex extract group (150 mg/kg/day) (n = 6), and high goji berry complex concentration extract group (300 mg/kg/day) (n = 6). After six weeks of treatment, sperm counts and motility, serum testosterone level, androgen receptor (AR) expression, oxidative stress marker, and apoptotic factors were examined.

Results: Goji berry extracts increased testosterone level to 2.07 ± 0.06 pmol/L in the goji berry 150 mg/kg group, 2.39 ± 0.08 pmol/L in the goji berry 300 mg/kg group, 2.97 ± 0.03 pmol/L in the goji berry complex 150 mg/kg group, and 3.34 ± 0.04 pmol/L in the goji berry complex 300 mg/kg group compared to 1.86 ± 0.03 pmol/L in the control group, respectively (p < .05). AR expressions were increased in testis tissue significantly but were not significant in prostate tissue.

Conclusions: Goji berry might improve LOH by reversing testicular dysfunction via an anti-oxidative stress mechanism without inducing prostate disease.

Keywords:

• Antioxidant
• late-onset hypogonadism
• testosterone
• goji berry
• animal model

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Technological Innovation R&D Program [S2198495] funded by the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA, Korea). This research was supported by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science & ICT [NRF-2018M3A9E8020861].