Maternal Water Deprivation Affects the Spermatogenesis of the Offspring Rats

Abstract

SUMMARY:Prenatal stresses such as water deprivation affect developmental process of embryo. This study evaluated the effects of water deprivation in pregnant mother on histological parameters of testis of offspring. Pregnant rats were divided into two groups (control and experimental). In experimental animals, water was removed from the ewes for 48h at the end of third trimester of gestation (19-21th days). Histopathology and histomorphic analysis and also TUNEL assay on offspring's testes were performed at pubertal age (60 days). The sperm motility either compared between two groups. The results showed that prenatal water deprivation induced histopathological alteration such as epithelium vacuolization, sloughing and detachments (P<0.01). Morphometrical data showed that prenatal water deprivation decreased tubular diameter and reduce epithelium height (P<0.01). Johnsen's score showed poor spermatogenesis in experimental group (P=0.001). The percent of germ cell apoptosis was increased in offspring's testes of rats born to mothers exposed to stress during pregnancy (P=0.000). The increased number of Multinucleated cells in the seminiferous lumen (P=0.000) in parallel with decreased number of sertoli cells (P=0.03) showed adverse effect of prenatal water deprivation on blood testis barrier. Present study revealed that prenatal water deprivation had injurious effect on developmental process of testes that affects on both germ cells and sertoli cells and had noxious effect on sperm parameters. These data confirm that prenatal stress disrupts normal spermatogenesis of offspring.

Hatchlings of the Marine Turtle Lepidochelys olivacea Display Signs of Prenatal Stress at Emergence after Being Incubated in Man-Made Nests: A Preliminary Report

“…Prenatal stress also reprograms and imprints gamete genome (Chehreie et al, 2013), thus passing diseased states to the progeny through transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (Jablonka and Raz, 2009;Leigh, 2010;Daxinger and Whitelaw, 2012;Heard and Martienssen, 2014). It is thus possible that worldwide hatcheries release numerous specimens that may be carrying heritable, non-adaptive traits.…”

Developmental Characteristics of Rat Testicular Tissue and the Impact of Chronic Noise Stress Exposure in the Prenatal and Postnatal Periods

“…Late effects of various forms of stress were studied by numerous authors [22] stated that water deprivation in pregnant rats increased number of TUNEL positive cells and germ cell apoptosis of the offsprings when reached puberty [9] found that immobilization stress to pregnant rats resulted in increased apoptotic cells of the offsprings at adulthood. The authors hypothesized that the increase in testicular apoptosis was the result of decline of gonadotropins and subsequently testosterone hormonal level that influenced the testicular cellular viability [37] Citation: Lasheen SS, Refaat SH, EI-Nefiawy NE, Abd-Elgawad RA, Othman AI, et al found that testosterone replacement at birth in offspring males exposed to prenatal stress was able to reverse changes in sexual behavior.…”

“…They found decrease in offspring's testes weight and damage of testicular histology. Chehreie et al (2013) showed that restraint stress to pregnant rodent mothers induced low birth weight in newborn pups that remained small up to adulthood [22]. Others examined the effect of exogenous administration of cortisol on the offspring of pregnant rats [24].…”

“…Dilatation of the tubular lumen and disorganized epithelium and sloughing of germ cells was observed. Chehreie et al (2013) applied water deprivation stress on pregnant rats and examined the effect on their offsprings after reaching puberty. They found decrease in offspring's testes weight and damage of testicular histology.…”

Effect of Maternal Water Restriction on Sexual Behavior, Reproductive Performance, and Reproductive Hormones of Male Rat Offspring

“…Various experimental studies conducted on mice, rats, and pigs showed that many environmental and ethological prenatal stressors can have injurious effects on the pregnancy and early and long-term adverse effects on the offspring. Different prenatal treatments and stress types, such as medications [1], drinking water restriction and deprivation [2][3][4], feed restriction [5], immobilization [6,7], light intensity [8], stocking density [9], restraint or social stressors [10][11][12][13][14][15][16], heat or noise [17], to which a pregnant female is exposed, can affect pregnancy outcome and influence many aspects of physiological systems in the offspring including sexual behavior, puberty onset, gonad function, reproductive hormones, and development of the reproductive organs.…”