The Histo-morphometric Evidences of Vernonia amygdalina Leaf Extract-induced Testicular Toxicity

Abstract

SUMMARY:Vernonia amygdalina (bitter-leaf) is native to West Africa but occurs mostly in its cultivated form in various parts of central and southern Nigeria. It is a dark-green leafy vegetable commonly used in cooking and as folkloric medicine for the management of several diseases in Nigeria. In the present study, the effects of varying doses of ethanolic leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina on the rat testis histo-morphometry were investigated. Forty male wistar rats were divided into groups of four. Group A, as the control was given 10 ml/kg/day/oral distilled water while Group B, C and D subsequently treated with 100, 300 and 600 mg/kg/day/oral route Vernonia amygdalina leaves extract respectively for 56 days. Results showed that Group B rats had normal testis histology comparable to the control group. However, rats in Group C and D exhibited dose-dependent poor testes histo-morphometric profiles, with the higher dosage-group (D) providing a worse feature. Thus, there was a statistically significant (p < 0.05) reduction in the tubular diameter, crosssectional area of the tubules, number of tubular profiles per unit area and the mean numerical density of seminiferous tubules of Group C and Group D animals compared to the control group. Our results therefore indicated that, while the lower dose (100 mg/kg) of Vernonia amygdalina leaves extract can be accommodated by rat testis, the higher doses (300 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg) demonstrate testicular toxicity in the rat.

Sperm characteristics and haemogram of male albino rats (wistar strain) treated with saponin extract from vernonia amygdalina del. asteraeceae 110192

“…Apart from the beneficial medicinal uses of bitter leaf, its methanolic extract has been reported to exhibit haemolytic activities (Price et al, 1987;Oboh, 2001). Saalu et al (2013) reported that at higher doses (300 and 600 mg/kg) of V. amygdalina leaves resulted in testicular toxicity in rats, while lower doses (100mg/kg) had no adverse effect on the testis. Saponins are a group of triterpenoid or steroid linked to one or more sugar groups (Das and Mahato, 1983).…”

Significance of Bitter Leaf (Vernonia Amagdalina) In Tropical Diseases and Beyond: A Review

“…Recent report showed that the aqueous extract of the leaves of VA significantly (p<0.05) improved sperm concentration, motility, percentage normal morphology and percentage number of live sperm at doses of 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg in dose dependent manner in groups of male Wistar rats treated over a duration of 30 days when compared to the control group of rats. This observation suggests that the administration of aqueous extracts of the leaves of VA successfully improved the sperm qualities [98] since there were significant improvements observed in all the sperm parameters of rats treated with the extract. The possible mechanism of VA induced improvement in sperm parameters could be as a result of the ability of VA to increase glucose metabolism, leading to the production of pyruvate which is known to be the preferred substrate essential for the activity and survival of the sperm cells [99,100].…”

“…In contrast, administration of VA at higher dose of 200 mg/kg for longer period of time provoked varying degrees of testicular degeneration, ranging from significant reduction in sperm motility, concentration, percentage normal morphology, percentage number of live sperm, to a significant increase in number of percentage of abnormal sperm. Though it was suggested that the possible mechanism by which higher doses of VA exert untoward effect against spermatogram and its relevant hormone may be as a result of its alkaloidal content which releases its metabolites that binds to cell molecules and cross-linked DNA thereby causing cytotoxicity, but the exact mechanism of action remains unknown [98,101].…”

Assessment of Testicular Lhcgr mRNA Expression Correlated with Testis and Seminal Vesicle Activities in the Libyan jird (Meriones libycus, Rodentia: Muridae) during Breeding Season Compared with Nonbreeding Season

“…The microscope fields were examined under a 40× objective. Morphometric parameters were calibrated using manual micrometry [ 17 ].…”