Nourah Abdulaziz Alrubaiq, Sara Salah I Alnasser,
Dar Al-Uloom Private School, Riyadh, Central, SAUDI ARABIA
The infertility is a global problem and pesticide that widely used might affect human health and cause infertility and subfertility. Chlorpyrifos has been excessively used in agriculture. A new study in the Saudi Arabia showed that chlorpyrifos residues in date fruit samples exceeded the Maximum Residue Level. In this study different doses of chlorpyrifos were used to evaluate the effect of chlorpyrifos on fertility. A total of 40 Sprague-Dawley rats aged from 6 – 8 weeks (20 male + 20 Females) were divided into 4 groups, 3 of them injected peritoneally daily dosage (5, 10 and 15 mg/kg) of Chlorpyrifos and the control group was injected with normal saline. Body and gonads weight, sperm morphology, motility and sex hormone levels were measured after 4 weeks injected course. Testis and ovary tissue samples were collected in 10% formaldehyde. Treated male rats showed reduction in sperm concentration and motility and sperm morphological abnormalities was observed. Testosterone levels were significantly lower than control. Histological studies showed pronounced arrest of maturation of spermatogenic cell at spermatidic level, and decrease in numbering of sperms with area of hyalinosis and vacuolization. Treated female rats reported a significantly higher body weight gain and increase in estrogen and progesterone levels than the control group. Ovaries weight reduction companied by Moderate Proliferation in granulose cells, with appearance of hyalinosis in stroma and cystic changes in some follicles. Thus this study demonstrated that chlorpyrifos could induce infertility in rodent models reflecting signs of infertility in the humans.