Increased Oxidative Stress Markers in the Testis of Sickle Mice
To evaluate whether testosterone deficiency in Sickle mice involves increased oxidative stress at the testicular level, we measured the protein expression of several markers of oxidative stress in the testis of Sickle, Hemi, and WT mice by Western blot analysis:
gp91phox (a catalytic subunit of reactive oxygen species-producing enzyme NADPH oxidase) [23]; 4-HNE (a major product of lipid peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which covalently binds to cysteine, lysine, and histidine residues of proteins and is an indicator of protein peroxidation and a biomarker for oxidative damage) [25]; and GPx-1 (an antioxidant enzyme that reduces hydrogen peroxide to water and lipid peroxides to their corresponding alcohols) [24]. Protein expression of gp91phox was significantly (P