Introduction: Melphalan is one of the most common chemotherapeutic drugs and has the ability to induce apoptosis in testicular germ cells, which leads to infertility. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of vitamin C on the structure of testicular tissue in rats treated with melphalan. Materials and methods: 24 adult male NMRI mice (35.56 ± 1.04 g) were divided into four groups control, vitamin C (100 mg/kg), melphalan (5 mg/kg) and melphalan + vitamin C and treated intraperitoneally for 28 days. 24 hours after the treatment, the mice were anesthetized and the left testicle was removed, and after tissue processing and H&E staining, tissue parameters such as the total volume of the testis, the volume, length, diameter and height of the epithelium of the seminiferous tubules and the volume of interstitial tissue as well as The number of germ cells and Sertoli) was estimated by stereological methods. Serum testosterone levels were also measured. The results were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's test, and the difference of means was considered significant at the p˂ 0.05 level. Results: A significant decrease in the weight and volume of the testis, the volume, diameter and height of the epithelium of the seminiferous tubules and the testosterone level was observed in the melphalan group compared to the control group (p˂0.05). while the volume of interstitial tissue showed a significant increase (p<0.05). In the simultaneous treatment group, vitamin C compensated the above parameters compared to the melphalan group (p˂0.05). Conclusion: Our study showed that vitamin C can probably prevent the destruction of testicular tissue with its antioxidant properties.
