Evaluation of Testicular Toxicity and Sperm Morphology in Rats Treated with Methyl Methanesulphonate (MMS)

Abstract

Abstract. Methyl methanesulphonate (MMS), a potent alkylating agent and testicular toxicant, was orally administered to rats for 5 days at 40 mg/kg. During the recovery period of up to 5 weeks, males were evaluated for testicular toxicity and sperm morphology. The 5-week recovery period were designated as follows: Day 1 (the day after final treatment); Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4 and Week 5 (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 weeks after final treatment). Morphologically abnormal sperm increased beginning in Week 3, peaked in Week 4 and declined slightly in Week 5. Histopathological examinations indicated retention of step 19 spermatids at stage IX from Day 1 through Week 3. Quantitative evaluation of spermatogenic cells indicated a decrease in the number of late pachytene spermatocytes and early spermatids on Day 1. TUNEL examination showed a significantly high frequency of apoptosis in the meiosis cells in Week 1. In the present study, genetic damage induced by treatment with MMS affected spermatogenesis and a wide variety of spermatogenic cells in the testis. Apoptosis in the course of meiosis seemed to be involved in the elimination process of genetically insulted germ cells, and this process seems to play an important role in eliminating and/or decreasing the germ cells with retention of spermatids and the potential to express morphologically abnormal spermatozoa.

Effects of Hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH-γ-Isomer, Lindane) Intoxication on the Proliferation and Apoptosis in Rat Testes

“…Apoptotic changes were reported in spermatogonia, spermatocytes and spermatids of rat testes after using chemotherapeutic agents (Cai et al 1997) and some testicular toxins (Foster et al 1999;Choudhary and Joshi 2003;Hu et al 2003;Kuriyama et al 2005). Apoptosis is a normal process for mammal germ cells during spermatogenesis.…”

“…In male rats, chronic lindane exposures markedly reduce sperm counts, sperm motility and impair spermatogenesis. In addition, serum testosterone concentrations decrease in lindane intoxication (Chowdhury and Gautam 1994;Prasad et al 1995;Dalsenter et al 1996;Kuriyama 2005).…”

“…There have been many investigations on proliferation and apoptosis of testicular germ cell in rats using chemical agents (Cai et al 1997;Foster et al 1999;Hu et al 2003;Kuriyama et al 2005;Koh and Kim 2006) but, to our knowledge, there is no published report on the effects of lindane on this matter. This study was therefore aimed to investigate the effects of 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg/bw/day on proliferation and apoptosis in testicular germ cells of male rats considering the toxic and lethal doses of lindane.…”

Quercetin Protects Spermatogonial Cells from 2,4-D-Induced Oxidative Damage in Embryonic Chickens

“…Since quercetin possesses an antioxidant nature at the appropriate dosage and is present in a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, it may be considered an effective attenuating factor in prevention of various disorders caused by environmental contaminants [4,5]. Among the v a r i o u s e n v i r o n m e n t a l p o l l u t a n t s , 2 , 4 -dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is one of the most widely used chlorophenoxy herbicides for control of weed growth.…”

Testicular spermiation failure in rats exposed prenatally to 3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl

“…These include phthalate esters (Creasy et al, 1985;Creasy, 2001;Moffit et al, 2007;Richburg and Boekelheide, 1996), 1,3-dinitrobenzene (Hess, 1990) and methyl 2-benzimidazole carbamate (Correa and Miller, 2001;Nakai and Hess, 1997;Winder et al, 2001), all indicating the suppression of androgen production. Similar effects produced by boric acid (Ku et al, 1993;Kudo et al, 2000), halogenated acid (Linder et al, 1990(Linder et al, , 1994, methyl methanesulfonate (Kuriyama et al, 2005;Ozawa et al, 2000;Richburg and Boekelheide, 1996) and tributylin chloride (Omura et al, 2001) indicate estrogenlike effects. Failure of spermiation has also been shown in primates including men treated with hormonal contraceptives (McLachlan et al, 2002;O'Donnell et al, 2001;Russell, 1977).…”