title: A sensitive sperm-motility test for the assessment of cytotoxic effect of pesticides.
abstract: A sensitive sperm-motility test for the evaluation of cytotoxic effects of carbofuran and glyphosate in a defined protein-free culture medium is described. The sperm motility was compared to that obtained with a protein-containing medium. The use of protein-free medium considerably increased the sensitivity of sperm cells from rabbit and human to the toxic effects of the pesticide. The respective IC50 values (the concentration needed to cause 50% inhibition of sperm motility) in protein-free medium of carbofuran and glyphosate were 321 and 48.2 microM with human sperm, and 116 and 23.5 microM with rabbit sperm. Whereas, the corresponding values in protein-containing medium were 920 and 740 microM, and 910 and 500 microM with human and rabbit sperm, respectively. Our results show that testing human and rabbit sperm in protein-free medium proves to be a more sensitive method than that in protein-containing medium. Additionally, the use of rabbit sperm is a more sensitive test system than human sperm. This study suggests that the rabbit sperm test appears to have a potential for the assessment of toxicity on human reproduction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Studies, Alexandria University, Egypt.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Yousef
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bertheussen
authors.forename: H Z
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Helmi
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Seehy
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Salem
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002235:Carbofuran / Q000633:toxicity*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D003470:Culture Media; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005998:Glycine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000633:toxicity; D006540:Herbicides / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D007306:Insecticides / Q000633:toxicity*; D008297:Male; D011817:Rabbits; D012098:Reproduction / Q000187:drug effects*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000187:drug effects*; D000097797:Glyphosate
chemical_list: D002235:Carbofuran; D003470:Culture Media; D005998:Glycine; D006540:Herbicides; D007306:Insecticides; D000097797:Glyphosate