Thymoquinone ameliorates bleomycin-induced reproductive toxicity in male Balb/c mice

Abstract

Bleomycin (BL) is a powerful chemotherapy drug that has devastating effects on spermatogenic function and may make cancer survivors at risk of infertility. Protective effects of thymoquinone (TQ), a phytochemical compound with antioxidant and anticancer influences, were investigated on sperm parameters, testicular structures, and sexual hormones in BL-treated mice. Forty-eight adult male Balb/c mice were randomly divided into six groups. Control group received normal saline; BL group received 10 mg/kg BL; TQ7.5 group received 7.5 mg/kg TQ; TQ15 group received 15 mg/kg TQ; BL+TQ7.5 group received 10 mg/kg BL and 7.5 mg/kg TQ; BL + TQ15 group received 10 mg/kg BL and 15 mg/kg TQ. BL was intraperitoneally used every day through 35 days, and TQ was intraperitoneally injected 3 days before administration of BL and continued twice per week for 35 days. Results showed that BL significantly decreased count, viability, morphology, maturity, and progressive movement of sperm, testosterone, seminiferous tubule diameters, the ratio of testis weight to body weight, number of spermatogonia, spermatocytes, spermatids, and Sertoli cells per tubule, and expression of Bcl2l1 and Bcl2l1/Bax ratio, and increased the non-progressive movement and immotile sperm, intermediate and immature sperm, LH, FSH, and malondialdehyde levels, and tunica albuginea thickness compared to the control group ( p < .05). TQ at a level of 7.5 mg/kg ameliorated BL-induced toxicity on measured parameters and returned most of them to the level of the control group. These data suggested TQ in a dose-dependent manner may have positive effects on BL-induced toxicity of the testis in mice model.

Vitamin C reduced Pausinytalia Yohimbe induced reproductive toxicity in female Wister rats

“…The effect of Vitamin C in restoring reproductive function is similar to the effect of antioxidant like thymoquinone in ameliorating the effect of reprotoxic agent (Yaghutian et al 2021). Future studies should be directed towards evaluating the effect of other antioxidants in mitigating the effects of P.yohimbe.…”

The antioxidant properties of resveratrol on sperm parameters, testicular tissue, antioxidant capacity, and lipid peroxidation in isoflurane-induced toxicity in mice

“…50 Sperms are produced in the seminiferous epithelium by the process of spermatogenesis, so ultrastructural changes in the wall of the seminiferous tubules of the testicular tissues caused by isoflurane may adversely affect spermatogenesis by disrupting the process of spermatogenesis and thus reducing fertility. 51 According to the results of other studies, isoflurane also causes tissue damage, such as nuclear agglutination in spermatocytes, large lipid droplets, and autophagosomes in the cytoplasm. It has been reported that isoflurane disrupts the spermatogenic tubes and the spermatogenesis process.…”

Thymoquinone improves folliculogenesis, sexual hormones, gene expression of apoptotic markers and antioxidant enzymes in polycystic ovary syndrome rat model

“…It has been demonstrated that a greater LH level is associated with larger ovarian atretic follicle sizes (Venturoli et al., 1986 ), which is consistent with our stereological findings. Our previous study on male mice indicated that thymoquinone restored the level of LH and FSH and testosterone in bleomycin‐induced mice (Yaghutian Nezhad et al., 2021 ). Increasing evidence indicated that plant extracts with antioxidant properties could restore the level of LH in PCOS rates (Nofal et al., 2019 ; Sadeghi Ataabadi et al., 2017 ; Sherafatmanesh et al., 2020 ).…”