engleski

Reproductive disorders in male rats induced by atrazine : Multigeneration test

Pesticides represent an important economic commodity and a very broad class of chemicals. Massive amounts of pesticides are produced industrially each year, and are used in agriculture and forestry. Even though herbicide atrazine is declared to be a nontoxic compound that is used in great quantities in agriculture, its presence in the environment, its possible ingestion via the food chain and direct accidental or occupational exposure to it may present a risk for the reproductive processes. Atrazine after in vivo (or in vitro) treatment induces significant changes in the function of the gonadotropic feedback mechanism, as was confirmed in our previous published results at the different stages of life, like early postnatal, during pregnancy, lactation or in male and female adult rats as an experimental model. Received results have been approved also on turkey in vivo and calf´s tissues in vitro. After long-term treatment (LTT) with atrazine twice a week over sixty days, sexual mature Fisher strain male rats were mated with intact females. Testicular sperm number (expressed as number of sperm per 500 Sertoli cells) after LTT was 22% lower than in control animals. The epididymal sperm number and sperm motility were decreased for 42% and 57% in comparison with the control values. The 60 day exposure exerted marked reproductive toxicity in male rats as serious damage at intracellular level checked by light and electron microscopy, it caused degenerative changes in Leydig and Sertoli cells. Atrazine affects spermatogenesis either during sperm production in seminiferous tubules or during sperm maturation in the epididymis. As a consequence of this damage the mating of LTT male rats with intact females results only in 66% successful pregnancies. LTT atrazine treatment induces damages at F0 male generation, but also in F1 generation. The survival of offsprings in F1 generation was 28% lower comparing to controls, and there were 50% less male offsprings. The survival of offsprings in F2 generation was 4% lower with still 40% less male offsprings vs. controls. Due to genetic changes in F0 generation there is a possibility to use this animals for testing new compounds for restoration of reproductive processes damaged with atrazine or some other xenobiotics.

pesticides; spermatogenesis; mutation; rat

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