P-19: The Effect of Mice Maternal Diet Supplemented with Omega-3 Fatty Acids on The Testicular Structure of Offspring: Stereological Study

Background Despite the bulk of studies on fatty acid supplementation in maternal diet and confirmed the positive effects on brain and vision, these effects on offspring reproductive organs have not been tested. The aim of the present study was to stereological evaluate the effect of feeding Fish Oil (FO) for mothers on the testis structure of offspring. MaterialsAndMethods Sixty mature female NMRI mouses were divided in to 3 groups (n=6): I. mothers fed control diet (CTR; standard diet pre and postnatal period); II.mothers gavages 0.01 ml/d Fish Oil (FO) + CTR diet during prenatal period and III. mothers gavages 0.01 ml/d/ FO + CTR diet during Postnatal period till weaning of offspring. Male offspring were sacrificed and their right testis was was fixed, processed, stained with H & E. The morphological and changes of testicular tissue were estimated using stereological methods. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results The testis weight was the highest in FO postnatal group. The volume of testis dramatically affects by treatments (80, 58.5 and 111 mm3 for CTR, FO Prenatal and FO postnatal, respectively; P< 0.05). The volume of seminiferous tubules in FO postnatal (89 mm3) higher than other groups (39 and 49 mm3 for FO Prenatal and CTR; P< 0.05) as well as total length of seminiferous tubule in FO postnatal (2.8 m) compared with others (1.8 and 1.9 m for FO prenatal and CTR; P< 0.05). Conclusion For the first time we demonstrated that maternal dietary fatty acid supplementation by omega-3 fatty acids affect mature offspring testis tissue. Although fed mothers by FO during milking period improved testis structure of offspring, maternal diet which supplemented by FO during prenatal may be destroy the offspring testis tissue, which warrants further studies.