Atorvastatin reduces tissue damage in rat ovaries subjected to torsion and detorsion: biochemical and histopathologic evaluation

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of atorvastatin as an antioxidant and tissue protective agent and study the biochemical and histopathological changes in experimental ischemia and ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in rat ovaries. The experiment used 48 adult female rats, and the experimental groups can be summarized as: group I, a sham operation; group II, a sham operation +10 mg/kg atorvastatin; group III, bilateral ovarian ischemia; and groups IV and V, bilateral ovarian ischemia +5 and 10 mg/kg atorvastatin before 30 min of ischemia, respectively (after a 3-h period of ischemia, the bilateral ovaries were surgically removed); group VI, 3-h period of ischemia followed by 3-h reperfusion; groups VII and VIII received 5 and 10 mg/kg atorvastatin, respectively, 2.5 h after the induction of ischemia, and at the end of a 3-h period of ischemia, bilateral vascular clips were removed and 3-h reperfusion continued. After the experiments, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and levels of glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were determined, and histopathological changes were examined in all rat ovarian tissue. Ischemia and I/R increased the LPO level and MPO activity while decreasing the SOD activity and GSH level significantly in comparison to the sham group. The 5- and 10-mg/kg doses of atorvastatin before ischemia and I/R reversed the trend in LPO level and MPO activity. The levels of SOD and GSH were decreased by ischemia and I/R. The administration of atorvastatin before ischemia and I/R treatments also reversed the trend in the SOD and GSH levels. In the I/R plus atorvastatin groups, although minimal vascular dilation in the ovary stoma and some degenerative cell clusters were seen, most of the cellular structures showed no pathological changes. Administration of atorvastatin is effective in reversing tissue damage induced by ischemia and/or I/R in ovaries.