Effects of Virgin coconut oil on Testicular toxicity induced by Cadmium in rats

Abstract

One of major threat to the environmental pollution is the contamination the by various heavy metals. Cadmium is found to have toxic effects on testis. VCO is increasingly getting the reputation of being the most versatile and healthiest antioxidant. Objective: To study the effect pre-treatment of virgin coconut oil in cadmium induced testicular toxicity in rats. Materials and methods: Institutional ethics committee clearance was obtained before beginning the experiments. Male rats of wistar strain approximately 150-200 gm body weight was used. They were housed in the central animal house under controlled conditions of temperature and light with normal rat feed and drinking water. Animals were divided into four groups with 6 rats in each group. Sperm count and sperm morphology was done. One of the testis was used for histopathological study. The data was expressed as mean  SD. Significance of the test was set at p<0.05. Results: In the present study administration of cadmium chloride showed a significant decrease in the testicular and epididymal weight as well as sperm count and testosterone level and increase in sperm shape abnormality. Pre-treatment with Virgin coconut oil showed a significant increase in the testicular and epidydimal weight as well as sperm count and testosterone level and decrease in sperm shape abnormality Testicular section in normal control rats and Virgin treated rats showed normal features. But, in cadmium treated rats the testis showed necrosis of most of the tubules but rats pre-treated with virgin coconut oil showed that less than 25 % of the tubules had necrosis. Conclusion: In conclusion, present study showed that Cadmium administration showed a damaging effect on the testis and Virgin coconut oil showed protective role in attuning cadmium induced testicular damage