Reproductive potential decreases with age. A decrease in male fertility is due to a combination of morphological and molecular alterations in the testes. Transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor-1 (TRPV1) is associated with aging and lifespan, and its activation causes apoptotic cell death in various cell types. However, the effect of TRPV1 on testicular apoptosis in aged mice has not yet been reported. TRPV1 knockout (KO) mice had a longer lifespan than that of wild-type (WT) mice. Lifespan was increased by 11.8% in male TRPV1 KO mice compared to that in WT mice. TRPV1 KO males lived approximately 100 days longer than WT males on average, and the maximum lifespan was markedly extended in TRPV1 KO mice compared with that in WT mice. The TRPV1 expression levels were highly increased in the testes of older mice. TRPV1 was expressed in the entire testes region of the old mice. In addition, old TRPV1 KO mice had lower testicular apoptosis than that of WT mice. Our results show that TRPV1 induces testicular apoptosis and suggest that TRPV1 may be associated with testicular aging.

ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AUTHOR’S AFFILIATION, POSITION ANDORCID NO.
REFERENCES

• Adrian S. Siregar(Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea, Department of Convergence Medical Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)
• Marie Merci Nyiramana(Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea, Department of Convergence Medical Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)
• Eun-Jin Kim(Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)
• Eui-Jung Shin(Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea, Department of Convergence Medical Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)
• Chang-Woon Kim(Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Changwon 51353, Korea)
• Dong Kun Lee(Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea, Department of Convergence Medical Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)
• Seong-Geun Hong(Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea, Department of Convergence Medical Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)
• Jaehee Han(Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)
• Dawon Kang(Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea, Department of Convergence Medical Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea) Corresponding author