P-220: Vitamin E Protects Atrazine-Induced Toxicity in Testes of Mature Male Rats

Background: According to several reports there is a positive correlation between the lowered quality of semen and any exposure to toxic compound specially those particularly disrupt endocrine functions. Like other herbicides atrazine (ATR) induces endocrine disruption and consequently interferes with sexual hormones physiological functions. Therefore current study was designed in order to evaluate the effect of long-time exposure to ATR on spermatogenesis, spermiogenesis, leydig cells distribution, sperm chromatin condensation and DNA integrity. Materials and Methods: To follow-up present study 18 mature male rats were used. The animals assigned in to three groups as control-sham (0.2 mg/kg, orally, once a day, for 48 days) ATR-administrated (300 mg/kg, orally, once a day, for 48 days) and ATR+vitamin E (150 mg/ kg, orally, once a day, for 48 days) groups. The percentage of tubules with normal spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis were evaluated in all groups. Moreover the aniline-blue staining was performed for analyzing sperm chromatin condensation and DNA integrity was evaluated using acridine orange staining technique. Results: Histological observations demonstrated that, the percentage of tubules with arrested spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis significantly increased in ATRinduced rats. Following ATR-exposure, the percentage of sperms with damaged DNA and percentage of sperms with impaired chromatin condensation enhanced into about 57- and 59- folds more than control-sham respectively, while the Vit E-received groups manifested with 5 and 6% reduction in comparison to ATR-administrated ones. Conclusion: Our findings showed that in the case of chronic exposure to ATR, the Vit E administration will be capable to prevent the ATR induced detrimental affects by lowering spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis arrest, and as well by reducing the DNA damages and nuclear immaturity.