L-Carnitine reduces the negative effects of formalin on sperm parameters, chromatin condensation and apoptosis in mice: An experimental study

Abstract

Background: Formalin is commonly applied as an antiseptic and tissue fixative. It has reactive molecules that lead to its cytotoxic effects. According to recent studies, formalin causes a change in the testicular and sperm structure and L-carnitine (LC) acts as an antioxidant to counteract its effects.
 Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of LC on the parameters, chromatin condensation and apoptosis of mice sperm exposed to formalin.
 Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 24 balb/c mice (25-40 gr ,10-12 wk) were divided into three groups (n = 8/each): group I without any injections or gavage; group II, received 10 mg/ kg formalin intraperitoneally (I.P); and group III was exposed to formalin and LC, where a dose of 10 mg/kg formalin was injected I.P daily and LC the dose of 100 mg/kg was kept in a solvent solution. After 31 days, the sperm examination was performed as follows: to evaluate chromatin and DNA quality of the sperm, we applied aniline blue (AB), toluidine blue (TB), chromomycin A3 (CMA3), and terminal transferase-mediated deoxy uridine triphosphate biotin end labeling (TUNEL) tests.
 Results: Sperm parameters such as count, motility, morphology, and viability displayed a significant decrease in the formalin group. While the data exhibited a considerable augment in sperm parameters in the formalin + LC than the formalin and control groups (p < 0.001), significant differences were detected between groups with respect to TB staining, TUNEL test, CMA3 test and AB staining in the formalin and formalin + LC groups.
 Conclusion: LC can reduce the negative effects of formalin on sperm parameters, chromatin stability, and percentage of apoptosis in an animal model.
 Key words: Formalin, L-carnitine, Mice, Sperm chromatin, Apoptosis.

Protective effect of L‐carnitine on apoptosis, DNA fragmentation, membrane integrity and Lipid peroxidation of spermatozoa in the asthenoteratospermic men

“…In addition, L-carnitine with meliorates TAC (Ghanbarzadeh et al, 2014) and scavenges free radicals such as ROS (Galarza et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2020;Nery et al, 2020) can prevent oxidative stress and pursuant apoptosis induction (Jiang et al, 2020;Lee & Park, 2016). Many studies have reported a reduction in DNA fragmentation of spermatozoa through TUNEL (Ezati et al, 2020) and SCD (Abad et al, 2013) methods by prescribing this antioxidant.…”

Pre-Conceptual Guidelines for Men: A Review of Male Infertility Experience, including Nutrition and Lifestyle Factors

“…Carnitine is an amino acid and is found to be in high concentrations throughout the structure of the testes and the epididymis and the spermatozoa [108]. Carnitine is involved in a wide range of physiological processes, thought to play many important functions in semen cells including maturation of the sperm [109], initiation of motility [110] and protecting sperm chromatin from oxidative damage [111,112]. Carnitine has been studied extensively for the impact on semen and fertility parameters, predominantly in those diagnosed with idiopathic oligoasthenozoospermia [113].…”