Evaluation of Morphometrical and Histomorphometrical Changes of Testes, Fertility Potential and Sperm Quality in Mice Treated with Aflatoxin

Aflatoxin is the most important mycotoxin toxicity and can enter the animal or human reproductive systems and cause some problems in relation to semen quality and fertility decline. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aflatoxin on histological structure of the testes and sperm characteristics and cellular targets in spermatogenic compartment and blood level of testosterone and fertility potential.
In this experimental study, 40 adult male mice were divided into 4 groups as the control and experimental groups. Experimental groups have received aflatoxin (100, 350, 700µg/kg) by gastric intubation daily. After 45 days, the mice were sacrificed and sperm samples were collected from cauda epididyms in order to evaluate the sperm parameters and perform the in-vitro fertilization analyses.
Analyses of sperm parameters demonstrated that sperm motility decreased remarkably (P Totally, the present results highly support the idea that aflatoxin induces testicular toxicity with adverse effect on sperm quality and fertility potential in a dose-dependent manner.