Background: Male infertility has been on the rise since the past seven decades. Recently, in Libya, bee venom therapy (BVT) has become a popular method among alternative healthcare practitioners for treating male infertility. However, a literature search did not find any published studies that investigated the use of BVT for infertility treatment. Aim: To investigate the effect of bee venom on the male reproductive status through measurements of semen quality parameters and testicular histological changes in adult male mice. Methods: A total of 48 male mice were randomly divided into three experimental groups (which were subdivided into two subgroups with eight mice each) as follows: control, bee venom sting (BVS), and bee venom injection (BVI). The normal control subgroup mice were not subjected to any treatment, while the vehicle control subgroup mice were injected (i.p.) with 200 μl of 0.9% saline solution. In the BVS-treated subgroups, each mouse was stung by one live bee for five times (BVS-5) or seven times (BVS-7) every third day for 2 or 3 weeks. While each mouse in the BVI-treated subgroups received 23 μg/kg in a dose volume of 200 μl BVIs (i.p.) for five times (BVI-5) or seven times (BVI-7) every third day for 15 or 21 days. Results: The findings of this study showed that repeated bee venom treatment by sting or injection to adult male mice resulted in a significant decline in testosterone levels, sperm count, sperm motility, and a very significant increase in the percentage of abnormal sperm morphology; also, there were harmful testicular histological changes in the structural organization of seminiferous tubules and degenerative changes in the germinal epithelium compared to control group. Conclusion: The results of this study provide evidence for the low semen quality and adverse testicular histological changes in male mice treated with bee venom. Hence, there is a desperate need for educating alternative healthcare practitioners and infertile couples about the harmful effects of BVT on reproductive status.

Background and objectives: Pesticides play an essential role in crop protection, but their overuse caused environmental pollution and harmful effect on different animal body systems, including the endocrine system. The thyroid gland is one of the homeostatic regulators of metabolic activities, which is affected by the elements of the external environment. There are very limited studies on the effect of indoxacarb on the histological architecture and functions of thyroid gland. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of examining functionally and histologically of the thyroid gland exposed to indoxacarb. Method: 24 Swiss albino mice male and female were randomly divided into two groups, each group male and female; group I is a control group given orally with 1ml of distilled water and group II orally treated with 120 mg/kg Bw. of indoxacarb daily for 3 weeks. Blood samples were collected from each mouse under anesthetic to determine the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroxine (T4) levels. Thyroid gland histopathology was attained for the evaluation of the indoxacarb effect. Results: The treated mice showed non-significant increase in T4 levels and a significant decrease in TSH levels but there was no significant difference recorded in T4 and TSH levels between sexes. Histologically, the sections of the thyroid gland of the treated group showed empty and irregular follicles, degeneration of the follicular epithelial tissue, and hyperplasia in the lining of some follicles, the capsule with congestion blood vessels. Conclusion: This study concluded that indoxacarb may act as a thyroid gland toxicant.

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The etiology of female infertility can be broken down into ovulation disorders uterine abnormalities, tubal obstruction, and peritoneal factors, cervical factors are also thought to play a minor role. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that stops the production of Reactive oxygen species (ROS) formed when fat undergoes oxidation; it may prevent or delay the chronic diseases associated with free radicals .The present study was designed to investigate the protective roles of antioxidants as vitamin E toward formaldehyde induce damage in female reproductive system. Female mice (n=50, 25-40 gm) were mated, every five female mice with one male mouse for 6 days for breeding. On the sixth day, female mice were divided into five groups: group 1 (control) administered tween 80 (5 ml/kg) for 5 days, group 2 received formaldehyde (30 mg/kg) for 5 days, group 3 received vitamin E (100mg/kg) for 5 days, group 4 administered formaldehyde and vitamin E (prophylactic) for 5 days, group 5 received formaldehyde for 5 days followed by vitamin E for another 5 days (curative). At the end of 21 days, animals were sacrificed; ovaries and uterus were removed and fixed in 10% formalin solution for routine histological techniques. Intraperitoneal administration was adopted in this study. Results: it was found that formaldehyde induced reproductive and developmental toxicities result in precipitous pathologies affecting female reproduction; Vitamin E is well accepted as nature's most effective lipid-soluble, chain-breaking antioxidant, protecting cell membranes from free-radical mediated per oxidative damage. It can be concluded that formaldehyde causes toxicity in female reproductive system. Vitamin E repair and treat formaldehyde toxicity. The improvement induced by vitamin E was more significant in treated group compared with prophylactic group.

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