Effects of alcohol consumption on the haematology and testis of mice experimentally infected with Trypanosoma brucei

Abstract

Forty 6-week-old inbred albino mice were used to study the effect of alcohol consumption on haematology and testis of mice experimentally infected with Trypanosoma brucei (T. b. brucei). The forty mice were divided into four groups of 10 mice each. Groups 1 and 3 mice received graded levels of ethanol at 10, 20 and 30 % (v/v) in water for 1 week, 2 weeks and the rest of the experimental period, respectively. At day 29 of the experiment, mice in groups 1 and 2 (non-alcohol exposed) were infected intraperitoneally with 1.0 × 106 T. brucei in PBS-diluted blood. Group 4 mice served as control and were neither given alcohol nor infected with trypanosomes. The animals in all the groups were given water and commercial diet ad libitum. The alcohol-exposed infected mice had significantly (P < 0.01) higher levels of parasitaemia than the non-alcohol-exposed infected group. The control group had significantly (P < 0.01) higher body weights, packed cell volume, red blood cell, white blood cell counts and testicular sperm reserve than the other groups. These parameters were significantly (P < 0.01) lowest in the alcohol-exposed infected group when compared with the other groups. Microscopically, degeneration and necrosis of spermatogenic cells were observed in seminiferous tubules of the testes of alcohol-exposed and T. brucei-infected mice. Sections of testes of the mice exposed to alcohol alone and non-alcohol-exposed T. brucei-infected mice had seminiferous tubules with poor development of spermatogenic cells. It was concluded that alcohol exposure markedly increased the deleterious effects of T. brucei considering the increases in the haematological values and various lesions produced in testes of the experimental mice.