Evaluating the ameliorative efficacy of Spirulina platensis on spermatogenesis and steroidogenesis in cadmium-intoxicated rats

Abstract

The present study was conducted to evaluate the ameliorative efficacy of Spirulina platensis (SP) on reproductive dysfunctions induced by cadmium chloride (CdCl2) in male rats. Rats (n = 40) were divided into five groups (eight rats/each). Group 1: served as control without any treatment. Group 2: Rats were administered SP (150 mg/kg body weight (BW)) in drinking water for 10 days. Group 3: Rats were subcutaneously injected with CdCl2 (2 mg/kg BW) daily for 10 days. Group 4: Rats were co-treated with both CdCl2 (2 mg/kg BW) and SP (150 mg/kg BW) daily for 10 days (SP prophylactic group). Group 5: Rats received CdCl2 for 10 days followed by administration of SP alone in drinking water daily for another 30 days with the same mentioned routes and doses (SP treatment group). From our findings, the administration of SP alone or co-administration with Cd significantly attenuated the harmful effects of Cd, suggesting its beneficial role in improving spermatogenesis and steroidogenesis after Cd exposure.

Anti-obesity effects of individual or combination treatment with Spirulina platensis and green coffee bean aqueous extracts in high-fat diet-induced obese rats

“…The powder of S. platensis was obtained from Free Trade Egypt Co., Behira, Egypt. The aqueous extract was prepared by suspending 1 g of S. platensis powder in 1 mL of distilled water (Farag et al 2016). The aqueous extract of green coffee beans was prepared by infusing 30 g of ground beans of Coffea arabica in 175 mL of distilled water.…”

“…The control group rats had free access to normal diet and water during the experimental period. The HFD group rats were further subdivided into the following four subgroups (10 rats/subgroup): Group IIa (untreated HFD group), fed on HFD throughout the experimental period; Group IIb (S. platensis extract-treated HFD group), fed on HFD for 16 weeks, followed by oral administration of S. platensis (150 mg/kg bodyweight) suspended in water using a water bottle during the last six weeks (Farag et al 2016); Group IIc (green coffee bean extract-treated HFD group), fed on HFD for 16 weeks, followed by oral administration of green coffee bean extract (200 mg/kg bodyweight) suspended in water using a water bottle during the last six weeks. This dose of green coffee bean extract was selected based on a mouse study (Choi et al 2016), which was converted to rat dosage using a previously described calculation method (Nair and Jacob 2016); Group IId (S. platensis and green coffee bean extract-treated HFD group), fed on HFD for 16 weeks, followed by oral administration of S. platensis (150 mg/kg bodyweight) and green coffee bean (200 mg/kg bodyweight) extract suspended in water using a water bottle during the last six weeks.…”

Potential Therapeutic Role of Dietary Supplementation with Spirulina platensis on the Erectile Function of Obese Rats Fed a Hypercaloric Diet

“…It is rich in proteins, carbohydrates, fibers, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), vitamins, and minerals [12][13][14] and constitutes an important source of bioactive compounds, such as chlorophyll, lutein, phycocyanin, β-carotene, fucoxanthins, phycobilins, and allophycocyanin [5,15,16]. These bioactive compounds are responsible for various anti-inflammatory, antioxidant [17][18][19], antihypertensive [20,21], immunomodulative and anticancer [22,23], antiobesity [24,25], antidiabetic [26], antimicrobial [27], and reproprotective [28] properties. S. platensis, when used as a food supplement for humans and animals [29], is beneficial for management of diabetes, arthritis, allergies, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and even organic disorders such as erectile dysfunction (ED) [19,[30][31][32][33].…”

Review of polyphenol‐rich products as potential protective and therapeutic factors against cadmium hepatotoxicity

“…It is very important to notice that polyphenols are effective in offering protection from Cd toxicity to other organs and tissues, including the kidneys and skeleton, indicating the beneficial influence of these compounds on the whole organism (Aly et al, ; Baiomy & Mansour, ; Brzóska et al, ; Brzóska, Gałażyn‐Sidorczuk, et al, ; Brzóska, Rogalska, et al, ; Brzóska, Rogalska, et al, ; Farag et al, ; Izaguirry et al, ; Kopeć et al, ; Wani et al, ). Moreover, polyphenolic compounds are known to protect the liver from the hepatotoxic action of other xenobiotics such as diethylnitrosamine, Pb and As (Bingül et al, ; Choudhury et al, ; Kopeć et al, ; Winiarska‐Mieczan, ).…”

“…Available data from the literature show that spirulina seems to be effective in the prophylaxis of Cd-induced liver injury (Amin et al, 2006;Gaurav et al, 2010). Moreover, this algae has been reported to be effective in protection from genotoxic and spermatotoxic action of this heavy metal (Aly, Kotb, & Hammad, 2018;Farag, Abd EL-Aziz, Ali, & Ahmed, 2016).…”