Abdel Aziz A H, Shouman S A, Attia A S, Saad S F
Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar, Egypt.
Pharmacol Res. 1997 May;35(5):457-62. doi: 10.1006/phrs.1997.0158.
Worldwide usage of different colouring agents in the food industry prompted us to study their toxicity. The potential adverse effects of erythrosine (ER, FD & C Red No. 3) on the spermatogenesis process were investigated in adult mice. Testicular lactic dehydrogenase isoenzyme activity (LDH-X), a pachytene spermatocyte marker of testicular toxicity, was significantly decreased to 71.8% and 68.6% of the control value after daily p.o. administration of ER (21 days) in doses of 68 and 136 mg kg-1 respectively. At the same time, the normal average epididymal sperm count as well as the percentage of motile sperms were significantly inhibited by about 50% and 57% respectively. Moreover, ER was shown to disrupt the normal morphology of the sperm head. Thus, after 5 daily p.o administrations of ER in doses of 680 and 1360 mg kg-1 (equivalent to 10 and 20% of its LD50) it increased the incidence of sperms with abnormal head by about 57% and 65% respectively. The induced increase in sperm abnormalities could enhance the spermatogenic dysfunction and germ cell mutagenicity. These findings indicate that ER in the used doses has a potential toxic effect on spermatogenesis in mice and in turn, it may affect its testicular function and reproductive performance.
食品工业中不同着色剂在全球范围内的使用促使我们研究它们的毒性。我们研究了赤藓红（ER，FD & C红3号）对成年小鼠精子发生过程的潜在不良影响。睾丸乳酸脱氢酶同工酶活性（LDH-X）是睾丸毒性的粗线期精母细胞标志物，在分别以68和136 mg kg-1的剂量每日口服给予ER（21天）后，显著降低至对照值的71.8%和68.6%。同时，正常的附睾平均精子计数以及活动精子的百分比分别受到显著抑制，约为50%和57%。此外，ER被证明会破坏精子头部的正常形态。因此，在分别以680和1360 mg kg-1（相当于其LD50的10%和20%）的剂量每日口服给予ER 5次后，头部异常精子的发生率分别增加了约57%和65%。诱导的精子异常增加可能会增强生精功能障碍和生殖细胞致突变性。这些发现表明，所使用剂量的ER对小鼠精子发生具有潜在毒性作用，进而可能影响其睾丸功能和生殖性能。
