Curcumin improves the protective effects of quercetin against atrazine‐induced testicular injury in adult Wistar rats

Abstract

This study evaluated the beneficial protective effect of cotreatment of curcumin (CUR) and quercetin (QUE) on atrazine (ATZ)‐induced testicular toxicity in rats. ATZ challenge diminished luteinizing hormone, follicular stimulating hormone, testosterone and myeloperoxidase enzyme activity, but these effects were attenuated on co‐treatment with CUR and QUE. Also, co‐treatment of CUR + QUE was better than separate administration of QUE at diminishing malondialdehyde and glutathione and improving tumour necrosis factor‐α concentration, germ cell numbers (spermatogonia, spermatocytes and round spermatids) and epididymal sperm quality. Histologically, smaller sized tubules with degenerated epithelia and few germ cells were seen in the seminiferous tubules of the ATZ group whereas CUR + QUE pretreatment improved the histo‐morphologic features of the tubules compared to the ATZ group and was also better than separate administration of QUE. We conclude that CUR can improve the protective effects of QUE against ATZ‐induced testicular injury by enhancing the levels of reproductive hormones, recovering testicular biochemical parameters and improving the histological features of the testes.

Combined Protective Effects of Quercetin, Rutin, and Gallic Acid against Cadmium-Induced Testicular Damages in Young-Adult Rats

“…Interestingly, cotreatment with the phenolics both singly or concurrently could reverse Cd-induced decline in testosterone levels and improve the morphology of the testis. Although concurrent administration of the phenolics (RUT +GAL+QUE) was more potent than their separate effects on rescuing testosterone level, the morphology of the testis of the QUE+Cd-treated animals that showed few vacuolar spaces were better after concurrent administration of the phenolics, confirming that quercetin administration after 9 Andrologia Cd exposure has a weaker protective effect on the histology of the rats' testes [27] that was improved after cotreatment with the phenolics. Because some phenolic chemicals exhibit androgenic effects, their intake could improve reproductive hormones in both preclinical and clinical experimental model systems [71].…”

“…intraperitoneal dose is assumed to be a safe standard rate of absorption after Cd exposure [30,31]. Our previous studies and those of others have established that quercetin, rutin, and gallic acid at low and comparable doses are capable of expressing antioxidant-inducing and protective effects separately in testicular systems of rats and other model systems [16,25,27,32,33]. For example, in the rat's testicular system, rutin expresses antioxidant-inducing potentials at lower doses (25 mg kg -1 b.w.)…”

“…Furthermore, several studies including those established in our laboratories have also found that intake of quercetin, rutin, and gallic acid could also increase testosterone levels in rats under various diseased states [16,18,54,72,73] thereby supporting our present findings. It is therefore a plausible assumption that where the intake of individual phenolic chemicals could partially reverse a chemically induced decline in testosterone levels, a multimodal treatment regimen approach could offer better stimulatory effects on the testosterone level and recovery of the histology of the testes in both animals and humans [16,27,71].…”

“…We earlier established that both gallic acid and quercetin at comparable doses have antioxidant effects that could be influenced by experimental models (in vivo versus in vitro) [25]. Gallic acid has lower antioxidant potency than other flavonoids in the testicular system of a rat model [26], and the antioxidant capacity of quercetin could be improved when combined with other phenolic chemicals [27]. It is believed that some phenolics will have their antioxidant protective effects modified when administered concurrently with others, whereas some phenolic-based combinations are to be avoided [27][28][29].…”

“…Gallic acid has lower antioxidant potency than other flavonoids in the testicular system of a rat model [26], and the antioxidant capacity of quercetin could be improved when combined with other phenolic chemicals [27]. It is believed that some phenolics will have their antioxidant protective effects modified when administered concurrently with others, whereas some phenolic-based combinations are to be avoided [27][28][29]. In the present study, we explored the effects of gallic acid, rutin, and quercetin in order to understand their separate and combined antioxidant protective effects against Cd-induced oxidative injury in rats.…”