Shittu Seyyid A, Shittu Shehu-Tijani, Akindele Opeyemi O, Kunle-Alabi Olufadekemi T, Raji Yinusa
Laboratory for Reproductive Physiology and Developmental Programming, Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Endocrinology and Metabolism Unit, Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
JBRA Assist Reprod. 2019 Apr 30;23(2):83-90. doi: 10.5935/1518-0557.20180079.
Reductions in sperm quality due to free radical formation during cancer chemotherapy are well documented, hence the need for an adjunct antioxidant treatment during chemotherapy. This study was designed to investigate the effects of N-acetylcysteine on sperm quality following cyclophosphamide exposure in male Wistar rats.
wenty male Wistar rats weighing 150-170g were randomly assigned into 4 groups of five rats each, and were orally administered distilled water (Control), Cyclophosphamide (6mg/kg), N-acetylcysteine (100mg/kg) or Cyclophosphamide + N-acetylcysteine for 21 days. Sperm count, histone-protamine replacement, chromatin integrity, testicular histomorphometry and BAX Protein expression were assessed using standard procedures. The data was presented as mean ± SEM and analyzed using students' t- test. A <0.05 was considered significant.
Sperm counts were significantly reduced (<0.05) among the cyclophosphamide (69.95±7.78 x10/ml) and cyclophosphamide + N-acetylcysteine (64.78±3.52 x10/ml) treated rats, while it increased significantly (<0.05) in the N-acetylcysteine (132.20±28.71 x10/ml) treated rats compared to the control animals (115.30±8.70x10/ml). Increased interstitial space distance, degenerated Leydig cells and impaired histone-protamine replacement observed among the cyclophosphamide-treated rats were ameliorated in the cyclophosphamide + N-acetylcysteine-treated rats. Sperm chromatin integrity, which was poor in the cyclophosphamide-treated rats, was considerably improved when compared with the Control and the N-acetylcysteine-treated rats. Bax protein expression was reduced in the cyclophosphamide (20%) and cyclophosphamide+N-acetylcysteine (20%) groups when compared with the Control (50%) and N-acetylcysteine (50%) groups.
We concluded that N-acetylcysteine might improve sperm histone protamine replacement, which is one of the stage-specific effect of cyclophosphamide toxicity.
癌症化疗期间因自由基形成导致精子质量下降已有充分记录，因此化疗期间需要辅助抗氧化治疗。本研究旨在调查N-乙酰半胱氨酸对雄性Wistar大鼠环磷酰胺暴露后精子质量的影响。
将20只体重150 - 170g的雄性Wistar大鼠随机分为4组，每组5只，分别口服蒸馏水（对照组）、环磷酰胺（6mg/kg）、N-乙酰半胱氨酸（100mg/kg）或环磷酰胺 + N-乙酰半胱氨酸，持续21天。使用标准程序评估精子计数、组蛋白-鱼精蛋白替代、染色质完整性、睾丸组织形态计量学和BAX蛋白表达。数据以平均值±标准误表示，并使用学生t检验进行分析。P<0.05被认为具有统计学意义。
环磷酰胺（69.95±7.78×10⁶/ml）和环磷酰胺 + N-乙酰半胱氨酸（64.78±3.52×10⁶/ml）处理组大鼠的精子计数显著降低（P<0.05），而与对照动物（115.30±8.70×10⁶/ml）相比，N-乙酰半胱氨酸处理组大鼠（132.20±28.71×10⁶/ml）的精子计数显著增加（P<0.05）。环磷酰胺处理组大鼠中观察到的间质间隙距离增加、睾丸间质细胞退化和组蛋白-鱼精蛋白替代受损在环磷酰胺 + N-乙酰半胱氨酸处理组大鼠中得到改善。与对照组和N-乙酰半胱氨酸处理组大鼠相比，环磷酰胺处理组大鼠中较差的精子染色质完整性有了显著改善。与对照组（50%）和N-乙酰半胱氨酸组（50%）相比，环磷酰胺组（20%）和环磷酰胺 + N-乙酰半胱氨酸组（20%）的Bax蛋白表达降低。
我们得出结论，N-乙酰半胱氨酸可能改善精子组蛋白-鱼精蛋白替代，这是环磷酰胺毒性的阶段特异性效应之一。
