The Study of the Protective Effect of Vitamin E and Retinoic Acid on Testicular Tissue in Mice Treated with Cyclophosphamide

One of the side effects of anticancer drugs is spermatogenesis disorder. Hence, the evaluation of sperm production after chemotherapy has been the subject of several studies today.

Adult male albino mice weighing 20±2 g were randomly divided into 5 groups (n = 4);control, cyclophosphamide (12 mg/kg/day), cyclophosphamide and vitamin E (200 mg/kg/day), cyclophosphamide and retinoic acid (500 µL/72h), cyclophosphamide and retinoic acid (250 µL/72h) and vitamin E (100 mg/day). The treatment was continued for 35 days and at the end of the rats was anesthetized and testicular tissue was isolated, weighed, fixed, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin.

A significant decrease (p-value ≤ 0.0001) in the mean diameter of seminal vesicles, epithelial thickness, and index of tubular differentiation was observed in the testis tissue of mice treated with cyclophosphamide compared to the control group. In cyclophosphamide recipients with retinoic acid or vitamin E, parameters significantly increased to the level of the control group (p-value ≤ 0.0001), whereas cyclophosphamide co-administration with retinoic acid and vitamin A had a less tissue-protective effect.

Vitamin E and retinoic acid can offset the adverse effects of cyclophosphamide on spermatogenesis and may be inducers of spermatogenesis, while the combination of these two antioxidants has fewer efficacies.