Department of Animal Biology, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Department of General Biology, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil.
Environ Toxicol. 2023 May;38(5):1162-1173. doi: 10.1002/tox.23756. Epub 2023 Feb 9.
Arsenic is an environmental toxicant known to be a carcinogen and endocrine disruptor. Maternal exposure to arsenic has been associated with fetus malformation and reproductive disorders in male offspring. However, it is unclear the extent to which those effects remain during postnatal development and adulthood. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the long-term effects of prenatal arsenic exposure on reproductive parameters of male offspring at peripubertal and adult periods. Pregnant female Wistar rats were exposed to 0 or 10 mg/L sodium arsenite in drinking water from gestational day 1 (GD 1) until GD 21 and male pups were analyzed at postnatal day 44 (PND 44) and PND 70. We observed that some reproductive parameters were affected differently by arsenic exposure at each age evaluated. The body and reproductive organs weights, as well as testicular and epididymal morphology were strongly affected in peripubertal animals and recovered at adult period. On the other hand, the antioxidant genes expression (SOD1, SOD2, CAT and GSTK1) and the endogenous antioxidant system were affected in the testes and epididymides from both peripubertal and adult rats. Finally, an impairment in daily sperm production and in sperm parameters was observed in adult animals. Taken together, our findings show that prenatal arsenic exposure affected reproductive parameters of peripubertal and adult male rats mainly due to oxidative stress. Collectively, those alterations may be affecting fertility potential of adult animals.
砷是一种环境毒物，已知具有致癌性和内分泌干扰作用。母体暴露于砷与胎儿畸形和雄性后代生殖障碍有关。然而，尚不清楚这些影响在产后发育和成年期持续到何种程度。因此，本研究旨在探讨产前砷暴露对雄性仔鼠青春期和成年期生殖参数的长期影响。妊娠雌性 Wistar 大鼠从妊娠第 1 天（GD 1）至第 21 天（GD 21）通过饮用水摄入 0 或 10mg/L 的亚砷酸钠，在出生后第 44 天（PND 44）和第 70 天（PND 70）分析雄性幼仔。我们观察到，在每个评估的年龄，一些生殖参数受到砷暴露的不同影响。在青春期动物中，体重和生殖器官重量以及睾丸和附睾形态受到强烈影响，并在成年期恢复。另一方面，睾丸和附睾中的抗氧化基因表达（SOD1、SOD2、CAT 和 GSTK1）和内源性抗氧化系统在青春期和成年期大鼠中均受到影响。最后，在成年动物中观察到每日精子产量和精子参数受损。总之，我们的研究结果表明，产前砷暴露主要通过氧化应激影响青春期和成年雄性大鼠的生殖参数。这些改变可能会影响成年动物的生育能力。
