Ethyl methanesulphonate induced changes in the differentiation, structure and functions of spermatozoa of the house rat, Rattus rattus L.
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Date
1997-06
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Abstract
Intraperitoneal administration of 500 mg/kg and 625 mg/kg doses of the germ cell
mutagen, ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS) in 5 consecutive days to the house rat, Rattus rattus
caused a dose-dependent reduction in its body weight, cauda epididymides weight, concentration,
motility and percentage of live spermatozoa with simultaneous increase in the percentage of their
abnormal forms. Compared to 0·65% spermatozoa with abnormal heads in the cauda epididymidis
of untreated control rats, 24·86% and 65·72% such spermatozoa were observed in rats
on day 14 post treatment with 500 mg/kg and 625 mg/kg doses of EMS respectively. On day 28
post treatment corresponding values for abnormal spermatozoa were 16·21% and 14·32%.
Similarly, spermatozoa with abnormal flagella increased from 0·78% in control rats to 9·25%
and 5·75% on day 14 post treatment of 500 and 625 mg/kg doses of EMS respectively and
declined to 2·91% and 2·40% on day 28 post treatment. Abnormality in the sperm head was
mainly due to acrosomelessness and in the flagellum due to bending at proximal region. However,
the main effect of EMS was the development of spermatozoa without or deformed acrosomes
which may impair the fertility of rats. Analysis of various stages of differentiation of spermatozoa
inthe testis revealed that population of preleptotene and pachytene spermatocytes and of round
spermatids showed a gradual decline which became significantly less than controls on day 28 of
EMS treatment. Occurrence of abnormal heads of testicular spermatids indicated that the sperm
head abnormalities originated in the testis during late spermiogenesis.
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Keywords
Acrosomelessness, ethyl methanesulphonate, sperm abnormalities, spermiogenesis
Citation
Kaur L Rajinder, Parshad V R. Ethyl methanesulphonate induced changes in the differentiation, structure and functions of spermatozoa of the house rat, Rattus rattus L. Journal of Biosciences. 1997 Jun; 22(3): 357-365.