Veterinary Research Forum
Vet Res Forum

The effects of exposure to fluoxetine during lactation on testicular tissue and sperm parameters in mice offspring

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mojtaba Karimi pour 1
Abbas Ahmadi 2
Masoumeh Zirak Javanmard 1
Abass Jafari 3
Maryam Mohebi 1
Elnaz Hosseinalipour 1

1 Department of Anatomy and Histology, Faculty of Medicine, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran

2 Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

3 Department of Occupational Health, School of Health, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30466/vrf.2018.82090.2082
Abstract
Fluoxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor is commonly prescribed to treat maternal depression in pregnancy and lactation. This study aimed to investigate the effects of maternal exposure to fluoxetine via lactation on testicular tissue, sperm parameters including count, motility, viability, and normal morphology and testicular oxidative stress status in male mice offspring. Ten mice dams were divided into control and experimental groups. The control group received water and the experimental group received fluoxetine (20 mg kg-1) by gavage daily from postnatal days of 0-21. Histology of testis, sperm parameters and oxidative stress in the testicular tissue were analyzed at 80 days after birth in their male offspring (n = 8). Significant reductions in the body and testes weights were observed in animals exposed to fluoxetine. Additionally, fluoxetine exposure significantly reduced all sperm parameters, tubular diameter and epithelial height of the seminiferous tubules as well as Leydig cells number. Significant increases in the testicular malondialdehyde levels and percentage of sperm with chromatin/DNA damage were observed in mice exposed to fluoxetine compared to control. These findings suggest that maternal exposure to fluoxetine during lactation in mice has a negative effect on the testicular tissue of their offspring and impairs the spermatogenesis process which in turn can induce infertility.

Keywords

Fluoxetine
Mice
Sperm parameter
Testis

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Veterinary Research Forum
Volume 11, Issue 1
Winter 2020
Pages 35-42

  • Receive Date 06 March 2018
  • Revise Date 05 August 2018
  • Accept Date 25 September 2018

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