In utero protein restriction causes growth delay and alters sperm parameters in adult male rats

Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology

Research

Flávia PC Pedrosa¹  Wilma DG Kempinas¹  Janete A Anselmo-Franci²  Fabíola C Toledo³  Juliana E Perobelli³ 

[1] Department of Morphology, Institute of Biosciences, UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, SP, Brazil;Department of Morphology, Stomatology and Physiology, School of Dentistry, University of São Paulo - USP, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil;Graduate Program in Cell and Structural Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, Brazil;Department of Morphology, Institute of Biosciences, UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, SP, Brazil;

关键词: Luteinizing Hormone;    Sertoli Cell;    Sperm Motility;    Protein Restriction;    Sperm Morphology;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1477-7827-9-94

 received in 2010-12-22, accepted in 2011-06-24,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRecent studies have supported the concept of "fetal programming" which suggests that during the intrauterine development the fetus may be programmed to develop diseases in adulthood. The possible effects of in utero protein restriction on sexual development of rat male offspring were evaluated in the present study.MethodsPregnant Wistar rats were divided into two experimental groups: one group treated with standard chow (SC, n = 8, 17% protein) and the other group treated with hypoproteic chow (HC, n = 10, 6% protein) throughout gestation. After gestation the two experimental groups received standard chow. To evaluate the possible late reproductive effects of in utero protein restriction, the male offspring of both groups were assessed at different phases of sexual development: prepubertal (30 days old); peripubertal (60 days old); adult (90 days old). Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney test were utilized. Differences were considered significant when p < 0.05.ResultsWe found that in utero protein restriction reduced the body weight of male pups on the first postnatal day and during the different sexual development phases (prepubertal, peripubertal and adult). During adulthood, Sertoli cell number, sperm motility and sperm counts in the testis and epididymal cauda were also reduced in HC. Furthermore, the numbers of sperm presenting morphological abnormalities and cytoplasmic drop retention were higher in HC.ConclusionsIn conclusion, in utero protein restriction, under these experimental conditions, causes growth delay and alters male reproductive-system programming in rats, suggesting impairment of sperm quality in adulthood.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Toledo et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.