Insight Study on the Comparison between Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Its Bulk Impact on Reproductive Performance, Antioxidant Levels, Gene Expression, and Histopathology of Testes in Male Rats

Abstract

Background: Despite the beneficial effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) on different biomedical applications, including their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ones, it might have cytotoxic and genotoxic impacts on the male reproductive system. Objective: The current study compares the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles and their bulk form, at different doses, on male rats’ reproductive performance, testicular antioxidants, gene expression, and histopathology. Materials and Methods: Thirty male rats were randomly allocated equally in five groups. The control one was injected with Tween 80 (10%). The zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZnONP) groups received ZnONPs < 50 nm, specifically, 5 mg/kg (ZnONP-1) and 10 mg/kg (ZnONP-2). The bulk zinc oxide (BZnO) groups were administered 5 mg/kg (BZnO-1) and 10 mg/kg (BZnO-2), correspondingly. Rats were injected intraperitoneally with the respected materials, twice/week for eight consecutive weeks. Finally, the male rats’ sexual behavior and their pup’s performance were determined in a monogamous mating system. Rats were then anesthetized and sacrificed for semen characteristics evaluation and tissue collection for antioxidant and hormones analysis, gene expression, and histopathological examination. Results: It was shown that ZnONP-1 improved sexual behavior, semen characteristics, and pup’s performance compared to its bulk form. Similarly, the testicular antioxidants activity, glutathione (GSH), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) increased with a decrease in the malonaldehyde (MDA), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) levels. It also improves the reproductive hormone levels and mRNA expression of different steroidogenesis-associated genes and anti-apoptotic genes. Conclusion: It can be concluded that zinc oxide nanoparticles, administered at 5 mg/kg, had the most beneficial effect on male reproductive performance, while 10 mg/kg could have a detrimental effect.

The peculiarities of hormonal background in boars under correction of reproductive capacity by gadolinium orthovanadate nanoparticles

“…This is due to their high redox activity and antioxidant properties shown in Wistar rats (Nikitchenko et al, 2021a;2021b). Similar results have been reported by researchers using alternative antioxidant therapies for male infertility, such as NPs of zinc oxide, melatotin or coenzyme Q 10 (Banihani, 2018;Obembe, 2019;Goma et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2021).…”

“…Thus, with the administration of NPs based on gold, silver and molybdenum, which are widely used in medical practice, the initiation of OS in gonads and pathological effect on their structural organization are observed. Instead, zinc oxide NPs caused an increase in sperm quality, sex hormone content and normalization of antioxidant potential (Asadi et al, 2017;Barati et al, 2020;Goma et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Olugbodi et al, 2020).…”

“…Decreased LH level is not able to stimulate Leydig cells to produce enough testosterone. Instead, a decrease in follicle-stimulating hormone reduces the release of androgen-binding protein (ABP) from Sertoli cells, and thus causes a decrease in testosterone level in the male body (Darbandi et al, 2018;Goma et al, 2020).…”

“…Obesity-induced ROS synthesis affects adipocytes causing excessive leptin synthesis, which together with insulin reduces the release of T3 and, as a consequence, inhibits the functioning of the male gonads. Leptin produced by adipocytes also inhibits the release of gonadoliberins from the hypothalamus (Amjad et al, 2019;Khodamoradi et al, 2020;Turan & Ӧztekin, 2020).…”

Protective effects of theaflavins and epigallocatechin gallate against ZnO-NP-induced apoptosis in rat tracheal epithelial cells

“…Patron-Romero et al (Patron-Romero et al 2020) exposed C2C12 mouse broblasts, L929 myoblasts and HLPB human peripheral blood lymphocytes to 20-30 µg/L ZnO-NPs with particle sizes of 16-24 nm for 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h, after which the cells exhibited varying degrees of DNA damage accompanied by severe cell death. Goma et al (Goma et al 2021) found that 50 nm ZnO-NPs induced oxidative stress damage in male rats, which triggered an in ammatory response. ZnO-NPs induced in ammatory and apoptosis in the lung cells of female mice (Rossner et al 2019).…”