Zinc ameliorates cyclophosphamide-induced reproductive toxicity in male mice

Background: Cyclophosphamide (CP) is one of the chemotherapeutic drugs used as an antineoplastic agent for treatment of various cancers. Spermatogenesis is sensitive to CP, which decreases the sperm count of humans and experimental animals. Zinc plays an important role in prostate, epididymal and testicular functions and influences the process of spermatogenesis.Methods: To investigate whether zinc could reduce the reproductive toxicity induced by CP on sperms in a mouse model, 7-week-old male mice were divided into three groups. Two groups of mice were administered CP; CP was treated on the first day of each week for 8 weeks (100 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). One of the groups also received zinc at a dose of 200 mg kg-1 per day by oral gavages for 5 days a week for 8 weeks. The mice in control group received normal saline and water intraperitoneally and orally, respectively. At the end of the treatment period, the epididymis was taken out and used for sperm analysis. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. Probability values of pResult: The CP-treated group showed significant decreases in the number of sperms compared to the control group. Zinc treatment increased significantly diminished relative epididymal sperm count in mice treated with CP. In fact, zinc caused a partial recovery in number of sperms.Conclusion: These findings indicated that zinc has beneficial influences and might be partially protective against CP-induced reproductive toxicity.

کلیدواژه ها:

Cyclophosphamide ، Reproductive toxicity ، Sperm count ، Spermatogenesis ، Zinc