In recent years, there has been increasing concern about environ-mental chemicals and their adverse effects on the health. Due to wide spread and indiscriminate use of pesticides, they have a great interest.
Herbicide is one of widely used classes of pesticides. Atrazine (ATR), 2-chloro-4-ethylamine-6-isopropylamino-S-triazine, is one of the most commonly used triazine herbicides in the world. It is used in agriculture as a selective pre- and post-emergence herbicide for controllingbroadleaf weeds in numerous crops, including corn, sorghum, sugarcane, soybeans, wheat, pineapple and various ranges of grasses.
Atrazine is frequently detected in groundwater and surface waterresources and it is considered today as one of the most frequently detected agricultural chemicals found in drinking water samples. It can persist in the environment for several months.
Despite low acute toxicity, ATR has chronic toxicity on several organs such as central nervous system, endocrine system, liver, kidney and heart with controversyabout its carcinogenic and genotoxiceffects.
The aim of this work was to evaluate the toxic effects of ATR herbicide in reproductive system of adult albino rat (ovary and testis). They were divided into 2 equal groups as follow:
Group I (control group): This group was subdivided into 2 equal subgroups, each of 10 rats in the form of:
(Ia): control male rats
(Ib): control female rats
These rats were leftwithout intervention to measure the basicparameters.
These rats were gavaged orally with a daily dose 5 ml of carboxymethylcellulose
Group II (atrazine group):This group wassubdivided into 2 equal subgroups, each of 10 rats in the form of:
(IIa): atrazinemale rats
(IIb): atrazinefemale rats
These rats were gavaged orally with a daily dose of atrazine (200mg/kg) in ofcarboxymethyl cellulose 0.5% which represents 1/10 of the oral LD50 of atrazine (3000mg/kg) for 6 weeks.
At the end of the 6th week of the study, blood samples were obtained from rats of each subgroup to estimate the levels of testosterone (in males), estradiol (in female). Then the rats were sacrificed. The ovary and testis were dissected and subjected to histopathological and histological examination by light microscope and electronmicroscope .
The results of the present study can be summarized in the following data:
1- Biochemical finding:
In this study, ATR male rats showed significant progressive and time dependent decreases in the serum levels of testosterone in comparison with those of the control male rats. At the same time, the ATR female rats showed a significant progressive and time dependent increase in the serum level of estradiolin comparison with that of the control female rats.
2- Histopathological changes:
The biochemical findings are associated with histopathological changes in the testicular tissues stained by hematoxylin and eosinstains. These changes were in the form of dilatation in semineferous tubules and vacculation, testicular atrophy (sertoli cell only and leydig cell hyperplasia), hypospermia and spermatic arrest.
In the ovarian tissues stained by hematoxylin and eosinstains, there were atretic follicles, with hyperplasia of corpus luteum and vaccular degeneration.
3- Histological changes:
As regard histological changes (ultrastructure) in this study, microscopic examination of the testicular specimens of the male rats revealed abnormal semineferous tubules (apoptoticcell, giant multinucleated bodies) sertoli cell with irregular nucleus and vacculation. Pleomorphic leydigcell with irregular nucleus and condensed chromatin and vacculation.Macrophages showing decrease lysosomes and irregular nucleus.
In this study, histopathological examination of the ovaries byH&E staining after 6 weeks of ATR administration, the ovaries showed atretic follicles, with hyperplasia of corpus luteum and vaccular degeneration
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