Evaluation of L-Carnitine Effect on the Testis Tissue of Mature Male Rat Exposed with Cadmium

The evaluation of L-Carnitine effect on the testis tissue of mature rats exposed to Cadmium This research was carried out on 30 mature male rats, weighting about 180-240gr. Animals were divided into five groups. The first group (control group) received nothing. The second group (distilled water, 0. 3ml)، third group (L-Carnitine, 500mg/kg Body Weight)، fourth group (Cadmium, 1mg-kg B. W) and for the fifth group (L-Carnitine 500mg/kg B. W and Cadmium 1mg/kg B. W)، were injected intraperitoneally for 16 days at an interval of 48h between subsequent treatments. Animals were sacrificed on day 17 after the first treatment. For the evaluation of the sperm count the right cauda epididymis was removed and immidiately immersede into 10ml of the HBSS. For the histological evaluation, the right testis was submerged into the 10% formaline. With immuno-histochemical (Ki-67) staining, the number of cell proliferation in the seminiferous tubes were evaluated, as well as the testicular histology evaluated by the Johnsen Score. Following contamination with Cadmium, the rats showed decrease in the number of cuda epididymis sperm، the number of cell proliferation and number of spermatogenic cells in the seminiferous tubes. In addition L-Carnitine caused increase in the number of cuda epididymis sperm, the number of cell proliferation and number of spermatogenic cells in Cadmium induced group. Reasults demonstrated beneficial effects of L-Carnitine treatment in cadmium toxicity on number of cauda epididymis sperm and testicular tissue.