8 research outputs found
Are HAARTs beneficial for spermatozoa of HIV patients?
Introduction: Globally, HIV/AIDS has been ranked as the 5th largest cause of death in Southern Sub-Saharan Africa and the major cause of death in the world. The review aims to focus on the effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on the male gametes of HIV positive persons in order to give an insight into the fate of men infected with HIV with respect to their chances of having offsprings following the commencement of HAART.Methods: This review considered all original and review articles published on Pubmed from year 2000 to 2015. A few selected, exceptionally relevant publications outside this period were also reviewed.Results: HAART has been shown to improve the health, quality of life and reduction in the morbidity and mortality attributable to HIV-induced immune deficiency. It is anticipated that the survival of patients influence their fertility parameters while on treatment, with focus on young males, within the reproductive age.Conclusion: A better understanding of the influence of HAART on spermatozoa in patients with HIV/AIDS undergoing therapeutic management is therefore vital for knowledge and a proactive measure in order not to add to their burden if there is expression of the desire to conceive a child.Keywords: HIV/AIDS, HAART, sperm, Assisted reproductive technology, Afric
Male reproductive complications of diabetes mellitus and possible medicinal plant remedies: a review
Objective: Male reproductive dysfunction and subsequent infertility are major complications that are becoming increasingly associated with Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Due to frequent failure in treatment with orthodox antidiabetic drugs, there has been a massive shift of attention to alternative therapies. The antidiabetic potential of a large number of medicinal plants have been investigated both in-vitro and in experimental animal models. These specific plants were predominantly used because of the antioxidant capacity of their bioactive phytoconstituents. This review focuses on reproductive dysfunctions commonly suffered by male diabetic patients and medicinal plants that have been tested and reported for their roles in ameliorating such dysfunctions.Method: All original journal articles and reviews cited on PubMed between 2005 and 2015 in English language were considered for this review.Results and conclusion: This review reestablished the fact that male infertility is a common complication of poorly managed diabetes mellitus. It also highlighted the fact that the numerous challenges associated with the use of orthodox drugs in management of the disease makes medicinal plant therapy inevitable. However, the full potentials of these medicinal plants at correcting reproductive complications of the disease are still to be realized and more specific studies are required in this field for improved therapeutic outcomes.Keywords: Diabetes, Complications, Medicinal Plants, Erectile dysfunction, Remedie
Alterations of selected biomarkers and reproductive tissues histoarchitecture in offspring of artemether-lumefantrine treated lactating dams
Background: Evidence from previous studies suggests that most antimalarial agents adversely affect reproductive functions. The deleterious effects of artemether-lumefantrine on reproductive functions have also been documented but there is dearth of knowledge on the generational reproductive outcomes during lactation. Hence, we investigated the reproductive outcomes in offspring of dams treated with artemether-lumefantrine during lactation.
Methods: Ten lactating dams were randomly assigned into two groups (n=5) and treated as follows: Group I (control) received distilled water (1 ml/kg BW, p.o.) while Group II received artemether-lumefantrine (4/24 mg/kg BW, p.o.) for seven (7) consecutive days immediately after parturition. Pups were thereafter weaned and later given rat chow with water ad libitum daily, before they were euthanized at postnatal day 90 (PND 90).
Results: The results showed that although the anti-malarial drug caused a significant decrease in serum testosterone and estrogen levels in offspring of the treated group, relative to the control group; however, follicle stimulating and luteinizing hormones, sperm motility, sperm viability and sperm count were not significantly different between the two groups. Moreover, only testicular catalase activity was significantly decreased with a concomitant interstitial edema and defective histoarchitectural presentation in the testis and ovary. Nevertheless, the level of malondialdehyde was unaltered in both testes and ovarian tissues of the treated group as compared with control.
Conclusion: Therefore, this study suggests that exposure to artemether-lumefantrine during lactation could disrupt steroidogenic functions in both testicular and ovarian tissues of offspring in adult life
Diet-induced obesity alters kinematics of rat spermatozoa
Objective: To investigate the effect of DIO on the kinematics and viability of spermatozoa in an albino rat model.
Methods: Sperm suspensions from normal (Control) and diet-induced obese (DIO) Wistar rats were collected and incubated for various times (30, 60, 120 or 180 min at 37 °C). Motility parameters were analyzed with computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA), while viability was assessed by means of a dye exclusion staining technique (eosin/nigrosin).
Results: Results reveal that there was a significant time dependent decrease (PÂ <Â 0.05) in progressive motility, curvilinear velocity and beat cross-frequency after 60Â min, while amplitude of lateral head displacement and sperm viability was significantly reduced (PÂ <Â 0.05) after 120Â min in the DIO group compared to control spermatozoa.
Conclusions: These results provided evidence that obesity is detrimental to sperm parameter in rats possibly through increased testicular temperature as a result of a rise in fat deposition
Water ingestion affects orthostatic challenge-induced blood pressure and heart rate responses in young healthy subjects: gender implications
Evidence exists that women have lower orthostatic tolerance than men
during quiescent standing. Water ingestion has been demonstrated to
improve orthostatic tolerance in patients with severe autonomic
dysfunction. We therefore sought to test the hypothesis that water
ingestion would improve orthostatic tolerance in healthy young women
more than in aged-matched men. Thirty seven (22 men and 15 women)
healthy subjects aged 22.5± 1.7 and 21.5±1.4 (means±SD)
respectively, ingested 50ml (control) and 500ml of water 40min before
orthostatic challenge on two separate days of appointment in a
randomized controlled, cross-over design. Seated and standing blood
pressure and heart rate were determined. Orthostatic tolerance was
assessed as the time to presyncope during standing. Ingesting 500ml of
water significantly improves orthostatic tolerance by 22% (32.0 ±
5.2 vs 26.2 ± 2.4min; p< 0.05) in men and by 33% (24.2±2.8
vs 18.3 ± 3.2; p< 0.05) in women. Thirty minutes after
ingesting 500ml of water, seated systolic blood pressure, diastolic
blood pressure, pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure rose
significantly in men while only systolic blood pressure and pulse
pressure rose significantly in women. However ingesting 500ml of water
did not have significant effect on seated heart rate in both men and
women. Ingestion of 500ml of water significantly attenuated both the
orthostatic challenge-induced increased heart rate and decreased pulse
pressure responses especially in women. Diastolic blood pressure tended
to be positively correlated with orthostatic tolerance strongly in men
than in women. Pulse pressure correlated positively while heart rate
correlated negatively to orthostatic tolerance in women but not in men
independent of other correlates. Water ingestion is associated with
orthostatic tolerance strongly in women but weakly in men independent
of other correlates. In conclusion, the findings in the present study
demonstrated that water ingestion caused improvement strongly in young
women than in young men. This improvement is associated with increased
pulse pressure and decreased tachycardiac responses during orthostatic
challenge
Effects of Oral Administration of Nicotine on Organ Weight, Serum Testosterone Level and Testicular Histology in Adult Male Rats
This study investigated the effects of oral administration of nicotine
on body and reproductive organ weight, serum testosterone level and
testicular histology in adult male rats. Forty male rats divided into
five groups and treated for a period of 30 days with 0.5mg/kg (low
dose) and 1.0mg/kg (high dose) body weight of nicotine while the
control rats received 0.2 ml/kg normal saline. The fourth and fifth
groups were gavaged with 0.5mg/kg and 1.0mg/kg body weight of nicotine
but were left untreated for another 30 days. These groups served as the
recovery groups. At the end of each experimental period, the animals
were scarified and their reproductive organs were removed and weighed
immediately. There was no significant change in the body weight. There
was a significant decrease (p <0.05) in the testicular and
epididymal weight of rats for both treatments while the decrease in the
seminal vesicle weight for both treatment groups was not significant.
The prostate weight was not significantly increased in both groups. The
recovery groups showed appreciable recovery in their organ weight.
Serum level of testosterone of both groups was significantly decreased
in a dose dependent manner when compared with those of the control
rats. The histological section showed testicular degeneration and
disorganization in the cytoarchitecture, as the observed changes were
pronounced in the high dose group than the low dose group. However,
there were both regeneration of the germinal epithelium and
restructuring of the interstitum towards normal in the recovery groups.
No lesion was observed in the epididymis of the rats. The results
suggest that nicotine has deleterious effect on the male reproductive
organ of albino rats ameliorated by nicotine cessation
Effect of Increased Dietary Calcium on Body Weight, Food and Water Intake in Oral Contraceptive Treated Female Rats
The effects of high calcium diet on body weight in OC treated rats are
unknown. This study therefore investigated the effect of increasing
dietary calcium from 0.9% to 2.5% on body weight, food ingestion, water
intake, heart weight index and renal weight index in female
Sprague-Dawley rats treated with a combination of OC steroids
(ethinyloestradiol + norgestrel). The rats were assigned into three
groups of average of 11 rats each; control, OC-treated and OC + Calcium
– treated groups and administered orally for 10 weeks. Food and
water intake, body weight, cardiac weight index, left ventricular
weight index, renal weight index and serum calcium level were
determined. The result shows that OC treated rats had significantly
lower serum calcium concentration, body weight gain, food, water and
calcium intake than those of the control rats. The OC + Calcium –
treated rat had significantly higher serum calcium concentration, food,
water and calcium intake but significantly lower body weight than those
of the OC – treated rats. OC + Calcium – treated rats had
significantly higher water intake, calcium intake and significantly
lower body weight and food intake when compared with the control rats.
Cardiac weight index and renal weight index was comparable in all
groups. In conclusion, combined OC-induced reduction in weight gain
might be associated with inhibition of the feeding center and
consequent inhibition of the thirst center. Co-administration of
dietary calcium augmented the reduction in weight gain seen in
OCtreated rats probably by further suppression of the feeding and
thirst centers
Nicotine exacerbates reproductive biomarkers via generation of free radicals in female Wistar rats: Protective role of Quercetin
Background: Nicotine has been widely reported to generate free radicals in several organs of the body. Therefore, this study investigated the ameliorative potentials of Quercetin on selected reproductive biomarkers in female Wistar rats.Methods: Forty female rats were randomly divided into five groups (n=8) which were treated as follows: Group I (CN) received normal saline (1 ml/kg bwt); Group II (LN) received nicotine (0.5 mg/kg bwt) only; Group III (HN) received nicotine (1.0 mg/kg bwt) only; however, Groups IV (LNA) and V (HNA) received 0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg of nicotine with 20 mg/kg of quercetin respectively. All administration were done orally and lasted 28 days. Results: Nicotine significant reduction in the bioavailability of estrogen and progesterone in the treated rats when compared to control. Furthermore, relative to the control group, nicotine administration resulted in significant elevation in MDAand consequently caused significant reduction in the antioxidant enzymes (SOD and CAT) activities. However, quercetin treatment ameliorated these alterations. Conclusion: Quercetin dampens the reproductive distruptive effects exerted by nicotine through antioxidative mechanism in female Wistar rats