Protective effect of alpha-tocopheral on biochemical and histological alterations induced by cadmium in rat testes

Cadmium (Cd) is a potential environmental pollutant and causes severe damage to reproductive organs in adults including ovary and testes. Of all antioxidants alpha-tocopheral is considered to be most potent chain breaking antioxidant. Our aim was to study the effect of alpha-tocopheral on biochemical and histological alterations induced by Cd in testes of rats. Group 1 served as control, while groups 2 and 3 received subcutaneous injections of CdCl2 (3 mg/kg b.wt) once a week for four weeks. Group 3 in addition received alpha-tocopheral (75 mg/kg b.wt.) orally, daily for six weeks. Cadmium caused testicular tissue biochemical alterations such as significant increase in MDA, a peroxidation marker, decrease in antioxidant markers viz SOD, CAT and GSH and functional markers viz ALP and LDH. Histological alteration induced by Cd consisted of desquamation of basal lamina, shrunken tubules, generalized germ cell depletion with multinucleated gaint cells, degenerating Leydig cells, vascular congestion, interstitial edema and significant reduction in spermatodynamic count. Alpha-tocopheral significantly reversed all the Cd induced alterations. These results indicate that alpha-tocopheral has a protective effect against Cd indeed biochemical and histological alterations in rat testes.