Attenuation of the cyproterone acetate-induced testicular hypofunction by a novel nutraceutical lycopene: a genomic approach

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the cyproterone acetate (CPA)-induced andrological hypofunction and its correction by oral administration of lycopene. In this concern, spermatogenic, biochemical, histological and genomic profiles were studied. Cyproterone acetate administration for 1 month helped to develop infertile model rats. A significant recovery was noted in sperm motility, sperm count, sperm viability, hypo-osmotic swelling tail-coiled spermatozoa; activities of testicular ∆ , 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD), 17β-HSD, catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD); and levels of conjugated diene (CD), malondialdehyde (MDA), testicular cholesterol and serum testosterone after the administration of lycopene at 1.5 mg/0.5 ml Tween-80/100 g body weight/day for last 1 month to infertile model rats. Simultaneously, qRT-PCR study of Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-3, ∆ , 3β-HSD and 17β-HSD genes in testicular tissue showed a significant rectification towards the control in CPA-pre-treated cum CPA-lycopene-cotreated rats. Side-by-side histological and histometric studies showed a significant correction in qualitative analysis of spermatogenesis and seminiferous tubular diameter (STD) in CPA-pre-treated cum CPA-lycopene-cotreated rats. Lycopene showed outstanding efficacy in the management of CPA-induced testicular hypofunction with special reference to correction in oxidative stress-induced testicular apoptosis at genomic level.

Effect of lycopene on testicular androgenic and anti‐oxidative enzymes in cyproterone acetate‐induced male infertile Wistar strain albino rats: An in vitro study

“…ANOVA followed by "Multiple-comparison two-tail t test" was performed. Bars with different superscripts (a, b) differ from each other significantly at p < .05 destruction of free radical (Tripathy et al, 2016) after minimising oxidative stress probably because of its remarkable free radical-quenching activity (Mein, Lian, & Wang, 2008) or by activating the antioxidant enzymes after its binding of this nutraceutical to the enzyme.…”

“…It is being noticed that the lycopene has a promising effect on androgenic key enzymes after 30 days treatment in our in vivo study (Tripathy et al, ). But, the direct exposure (in vitro manner) of this nutraceutical on those said enzymes indicated that there was no significant effect of lycopene on above said enzyme activities in CPA+ lycopene‐treated group.…”

“…Antioxidant enzyme activities such as catalase, peroxidase, SOD and GST were recovered after direct exposure of lycopene to the CPA‐treated (CPA+ lycopene‐treated) infertile animals may be due to the potent antioxidant activity of lycopene either by rapid destruction of free radical (Tripathy et al, ) after minimising oxidative stress probably because of its remarkable free radical‐quenching activity (Mein, Lian, & Wang, ) or by activating the antioxidant enzymes after its binding of this nutraceutical to the enzyme.…”

“…After 30 days of CPA treatment, all the animals were sacrificed using euthanasia. Cyproterone acetate‐treated animals were allowed for sperm count test (Pant & Srivastava, ) by collecting the spermatozoa from cauda epididymis for confirmation of the infertile condition in this experiment as the same dose of CPA has been proved to induce infertility in our previous study (Tripathy et al, ). Sperm count was reduced to 43.03% in CPA‐treated group in respect to the vehicle‐treated control.…”

“…Food containing antioxidants, such as lycopene, an important nutraceutical with high free radical‐quenching property (Fiedor & Burda, ). Previous published paper in this line (Tripathy, Ghosh, Dey, Pakhira, & Ghosh, ) demonstrated that, lycopene has promising effect to minimise the amount of free radical in reproductive organs by decreasing lipid peroxidation and finally lowers the probability of infertility through different biochemical and genomic pathways. But direct effect of lycopene on testicular tissue in connection with its efficacy to minimise or eradicate stress‐induced infertility related complications have not yet been conducted.…”