Dietary supplementation of pumpkin seed oil and sunflower oil along with vitamin E improves sperm characteristics and reproductive hormones in roosters

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of pumpkin seed oil and sunflower oil along with vitamin E on the reproductive characteristics of aged roosters. Thirty Ross breeder roosters (45-wk-old) were assigned into 6 groups (5 birds/group) with the following diets: 1) control group (basal diet), 2) basal diet with 2% pumpkin seed oil as omega-3 fatty acid (PSO group), 3) basal diet with 2% sunflower oil as omega-6 fatty acid (SFO group), 4) basal diet with 200 mg/kg vitamin E (Control + vitE group), 5) basal diet and 2% pumpkin seed oil along with 200 mg/kg vitamin E (PSO + vitE group) and 6) basal diet and 2% sunflower oil along with 200 mg/kg vitamin E (SFO + vitE group). Roosters were fed on the experimental diets for 60 d and different characteristics of sperm characteristics including routine semen analysis and several sperm functional tests in every 20 d were examined. Reproductive hormones were also evaluated in 0 d and at the end of the trial. Semen volume and morphology were not affected by any of the diets. The roosters fed with pumpkin seed oil + vitE showed the higher percentage of sperm concentration, total motility, progressive motility, viability and membrane integrity and the lower lipid peroxidation ( P ≤ 0.05). The group 5 (PSO + vitE) had numerically the lowest sperm with fragmented DNA (DNA Fr + ) at 0 of the experiment and sperm with non-fragmented DNA (DNA Fr − ) was lowest in group 6 (SFO + vitE) on da 40 the experiment. Testosterone level was not affected by the experimental diets ( P > 0.05), however other hormones (LH and FSH) were affected. Based on the results, the supplementation of aged roosters’ diet with pumpkin seed oil + vitE improves reproductive performance which can be an appropriate strategy to preserve the reproductive performance of aged roosters.

The Possible Protective Role of Crocin and Pumpkin Seed Oil against Lead-Induced Testicular Cytotoxicity in Adult Male Albino Rat.Hormonal, Histological and Immunohistochemical study.

“…A Study concluded that PSO have antioxidant effect by down -regulation of gene expression Nrf2 that was increased after lead acetate exposure (57). PSO supplementation could inhibit lipid peroxidation through lowering level of MDA (59). Other studies proved that PSO is strong antioxidant as it elevated (GSH), (CAT) and decreased DNA fragmentation in testis (60 ,61) .…”

<strong>Antioxidant and Potential Non-antioxidant Roles of Vitamin E in Reproduction of Male Domestic Animals</strong>

“…And the number of services was increased in response to Vitamin E treatment (Talib Ali, Bomboi, & Floris, 2016). The diets in roosters supplemented with Vitamin E increased sperm concentration, sperm viability, sperm motility and membrane integrity (Lotfi, Fakhraei, & Mansoori Yarahmadi, 2021). Dietary Vitamin E could increase sperm count, sperm motility, serum level of LH and FSH in aged male chicken (Amevor et al, 2022).…”

The potential of pumpkin seed oil as a functional food—A comprehensive review of chemical composition, health benefits, and safety

“…However, the oil contains a lower amount of phytoestrogens than pumpkin seeds themselves (Andjelkovic et al., 2010; Pușcaș et al., 2020), but the oil is still considered useful for the treatment of hormone‐related disorders in men and women. Animal studies showed that PSO supplementation may improves sperm characteristics and reproductive hormones in roosters (Lotfi et al., 2021).…”