The effects of long‐term cyclophosphamide administration on sperm chromatin quality and apoptosis in rat testicular tissue

Background: Cyclophosphamide (CP) as an anticancer alkylating agent has been known which leads to diminished sperm via interference in spermatogenesis process that can cause infertility. In this context, we have studied the effect of cyclophosphamide on male reproductive organ s weight, sperm chromatin quality and apoptosis in rat testis.Methods: Twenty healthy mature male rats were randomly divided into two control and treatment group. Control group received normal saline (0.5 ml/week, IP) and CP was intraperitoneally injected to the treatment group (60 mg/kg/week, IP) for 56 days. At the end of the treatment period, sperm DNA damage (Acridine orange staining), sperm maturity (Aniline blue staining) and apoptosis of testicular germinal cells were evaluated by the transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay.Result: Results showed significant decrease of reproductive organ s weight and sperm chromatin quality in CP group in comparison with control group (PConclusion: Findings in the present study strongly showed that long‐term a induce apoptotic changes in the testis and affect sperm quality that could lead to infertility.

کلیدواژه ها:

Apoptosis ، Infertility ، Sperm ، Testes ، Cyclophosphamide