title: Evaluation of antioxidant effects of crocin on sperm quality in cyclophosphamide treated adult mice.
abstract: Cyclophosphamide (CP) is one of the anti-neoplastic drugs. Despite its numerous clinical applications, it has devastating effects on the testicles and declines the sperm quality in treated patients. This study was aimed to investigate the protective effect of crocin in improving the toxicity induced by CP in reproductive system. In this study, 24 male adult mice (6 to 8 weeks) were randomly divided into three groups, control group received normal saline (0.1 mL, IP, daily), the CP group received CP (15 mg kg(-1), IP, weekly) and the CP + crocin group received CP along with crocin (200 mg kg(-1), IP, daily). After 35 days of treatment, animals were sacrificed. The samples of epididymis in human tubal fluid medium incubated for 30 min in 5% CO2 for flotation of sperm. Sperm were obtained from caudal epididymis using dissecting method. Then, the parameters of sperm quality including sperm count, motility, viability, DNA damage, nuclear maturation, and sperm morphology were evaluated. In CP group, the sperm count, motility, viability, nuclear maturation and sperm morphology were significantly decreased compared to control group (p < 0.05) and in the CP + crocin group all of these parameters significantly increased compared to CP group (p < 0.05). The percentage of sperm with DNA damage in the CP group significantly increased compared to other groups (p < 0.05). The results of this study indicated that the crocin was able to suppress free radicals and enhance the quality of sperm in CP treated animals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran;
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bakhtiary
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran;
authors.forename: Rasoul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shahrooz
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran;
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmadi
authors.affiliation: Maternal and Childhood Obesity Research Center, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zarei
keywords: Crocin; Cyclophosphamide; Mice; Sperm quality