article · Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Agricultural and domestic use of the pesticide dichlorvos poses reproductive health risks, specifically testicular toxicity driven by oxidative stress. This study evaluated whether L-arginine, an amino acid and nitric oxide precursor with antioxidant properties, could counteract these toxic effects in male Wistar rats. Inhalation of dichlorvos lowered relative testicular weight, reduced sperm count, viability, and motility, and decreased reproductive hormone levels, including testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinising hormone. Dichlorvos also triggered oxidative damage, inflammatory responses, and apoptotic pathway activation, alongside structural damage to testicular tissue. Administering L-arginine significantly attenuated these harmful biochemical and histological changes. By reducing oxidative stress, inflammation, and caspase 3-mediated cell death, L-arginine restored antioxidant defences, sex hormone concentrations, and sperm quality parameters in the exposed animals.
Widespread pesticide exposure in agriculture and households presents serious hazards to male reproductive health and fertility. By showing that an accessible nutritional compound like L-arginine can mitigate pesticide-induced damage to sperm and hormone levels in an animal model, this research highlights biological pathways that could help address occupational chemical hazards.
This work indicates an early-stage therapeutic or dietary intervention concept for mitigating pesticide-induced reproductive toxicity. Potential users could include pharmaceutical or nutraceutical developers targeting protective therapies for agricultural workers routinely exposed to organophosphates. However, the findings remain at the pre-clinical stage in an animal model, meaning extensive safety and efficacy validation in human trials would be required before any clinical or commercial application can be realised.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
BACKGROUND: The continuous use of pesticides, such as dichlorvos, is a common agricultural and domestic practice. However, it is associated with shortfalls like testicular toxicity through the induction of oxidative stress-mediated signaling. On the other hand, L-arginine, a precursor of nitric oxide, has been reported to exert antioxidant activities and thus may attenuate dichlorvos-induced testicular toxicity. AIM: Hence, this study was designed to evaluate the effect of L-arginine treatment on dichlorvos-induced testicular toxicity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty male Wistar rats were randomly assigned into four equal groups. The control rats were administered 0.5 mL of distilled water, dichlorvos- (DDVP-) treated rats were exposed to DDVP via inhalation for 15 min, DDVP + L-arginine-treated rats were exposed to DDVP and also received 100 mg/kg b.w/day, while L-arginine-treated rats received 100 mg/kg b.w/day. RESULTS: DDVP exposure significantly reduced testicular nitric oxide, relative testicular weight, lowered sperm count, viability, and motility, and suppressed serum FSH, LH, and testosterone levels. These findings were associated with a rise in testicular malondialdehyde, TNF-α, IL-6, and 8OHdG levels and caspase 3 activities, and a reduction in GSH and superoxide dismutase. Additionally, on histopathological examination, DDVP was observed to reduce mature sperm cells in the seminiferous tubular lumen and induce focal vascular congestion in the interstitial space. Nonetheless, L-arginine treatment significantly attenuated DDVP-induced biochemical and histological alterations. CONCLUSION: This study showed that L-arginine attenuated testicular toxicity by improving epididymal sperm variables and male sex hormones by suppressing oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis in DDVP-exposed rats.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2024.117136
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
