Blueberry anthocyanins regulate SIRT1/FoxO1 pathway to inhibit oxidative stress and reduce testicular tissue damage induced by microwave radiation in rats

• Blueberry anthocyanins alleviated microwave radiation-induced reproductive damage in male rats. • Blueberry anthocyanins regulated SIRT1/FoxO1 pathway to alleviate oxidative stress. • Blueberry anthocyanins enhanced energy metabolism and reduced apoptosis. • The high dose of blueberry anthocyanins (400 mg/kg/d) had the best protective effect. Researches have shown that microwave radiation could cause oxidative stress injury in male reproductive system, and blueberry anthocyanins had excellent oxidation resistance. Our study aimed to investigate the protective effect of blueberry anthocyanins (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg/d) on testicular tissue damage in Wistar rats exposed to 2.856 GHz microwave and the optimal dose. We found that blueberry anthocyanins could ameliorate the decrease of sperm motility and sex hormone levels and testicular tissue structure damage caused by microwave radiation, increase SIRT1 expression and decrease FoxO1 expression, increase GSH/GSSG, SOD and inhibit MDA. The LDH, SDH and ATP synthase were increased, and Caspase-3 expression was decreased, and the high-dose of blueberry anthocyanins (400 mg/kg/d) had the best protective effect. These results suggested that blueberry anthocyanins could inhibit oxidative stress injury induced by 2.856 GHz microwave radiation in rat testicular tissue by regulating SIRT1/FoxO1 pathway, enhance energy metabolism and reduce cell apoptosis.