Impact of alcohol and cigarette smoking consumption in male fertility potential: Looks at lipid peroxidation, enzymatic antioxidant activities and sperm DNA damage

AbstractDimethoate is an organophosphorus pesticide used against agricultural insects, which causes oxidative stress and damage in many organs, including the reproductive ones. Cherry laurel (Laurocerasus officinalis Roem.) fruit is rich in vitamins and phenolic compounds with antioxidant effect. The aim of this study was to investigate how effective its extract would be against dimethoate-induced testis and sperm damage in rats. Sixty animals were divided in six groups of 10. Group 1 (control) received only 1 mL of saline (0.9 % NaCl). Group 2 received 7 mg/kg of dimethoate in 1 mL of saline. Group 3 received 4 mg/kg of extract in 1 mL of saline. Group 4 received the extract 30 min before dimethoate administration. Group 5 received vitamin C (positive control, 100 mg/kg in 1 mL of saline) 30 min before dimethoate administration. Group 6 received only dimethoate for the first four weeks and then a combination of dimethoate and extract for another four weeks. All doses were administered daily by oral gavage. After eight weeks of treatment, the rats were euthanised and their reproductive organs removed. We took their body and reproductive organ weights and evaluated testicular oxidative stress, semen characteristics, sperm DNA damage, testicular apoptosis, and histopathological changes. Dimethoate significantly decreased body and reproductive organ weights, sperm motility and concentration, testicular superoxide dismutase, and glutathione-peroxidase activities and significantly increased lipid peroxidation, abnormal sperm rate, sperm DNA damage, testicular apoptosis, and caused histopathological lesions. Cherry laurel extract significantly countered many dimethoate-induced adverse effects, both as pre- and post-treatment, including reproductive organ weight, semen parameters, oxidant-antioxidant balance, sperm DNA integrity, testicular apoptosis, and histological structure. Our findings clearly suggest that the beneficial effects of the extract are associated with countering oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation in particular.

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Single and Double Strand Sperm DNA Damage: Different Reproductive Effects on Male Fertility

Genes ◽

10.3390/genes10020105 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 105 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Jordi Ribas-Maynou ◽

Jordi Benet

Keyword(s):

Dna Damage ◽

Male Fertility ◽

Sperm Chromatin ◽

Dna Breaks ◽

Sperm Dna Damage ◽

Reproductive Effects ◽

Double Strand Dna Breaks ◽

Sperm Dna ◽

Break Points ◽

Double Strand Dna

Reproductive diseases have become a growing worldwide problem and male factor plays an important role in the reproductive diagnosis, prognosis and design of assisted reproductive treatments. Sperm cell holds the mission of carrying the paternal genetic complement to the oocyte in order to contribute to an euploid zygote with proper DNA integrity. Sperm DNA fragmentation had been used for decades as a male fertility test, however, its usefulness have arisen multiple debates, especially around Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) treatments. In the recent years, it has been described that different types of sperm DNA breaks (single and double strand DNA breaks) cause different clinical reproductive effects. On one hand, single-strand DNA breaks are present extensively as a multiple break points in all regions of the genome, are related to oxidative stress and cause a lack of clinical pregnancy or an increase of the conception time. On the other hand, double-strand DNA breaks are mainly localized and attached to the sperm nuclear matrix as a very few break points, are possibly related to a lack of DNA repair in meiosis and cause a higher risk of miscarriage, low embryo quality and higher risk of implantation failure in ICSI cycles. The present work also reviews different studies that may contribute in the understanding of sperm chromatin as well as treatments to prevent sperm DNA damage.

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