Methanolic Extract of Coconut Meat Decrease Sperm DNA Fragmentation and Teratozoospermia Index By Reduction of Oxidative Stress In Testis Tissues of Type II Diabetic Rats

Our previous studies showed that methanolic extract of coconut meat (MECM) can improve quality and quantity indices of sperm in diabetic rats. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of MECM on teratozoospermia index (TZI), Sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) and oxidative stress indices in testis of type II diabetic rats.Twenty-five adult male Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups including control, Diabetic and 3 treated diabetic groups which received 100, 150 and 200 mg/kg/day MECM by oral gavage for 40 consecutive days. Type II diabetes was induced by high fat diet and 35 mg/kg streptozotocin. Finally, animals were euthanized and their left testis and epididymis was removed. TZI and sperm DNA fragmentation was evaluated under light microscope. Testis tissue samples were stored at -80 ºC until glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was measured.The results showed that induction of diabetes significantly increased TZI, SDF index and MDA level of testis but decreased GPx, SOD and TAC level of testis while in all treatment groups, these conditions were improved in a dose dependent manner. Ourresults indicated that administration of MECM in all three dose reduced TZI, SDF index and MDA level of testis and also increased GPx, SOD and TAC level of testis tissue significantly compared to diabetic groups (p<0.01). It can be concluded that MECM can inhibit the sperm abnormalities and DNA fragmentation in diabetic patients by reduction of oxidative stress in testis tissues.

Keywords:

Coconut , Diabetes , Testis , TZI , Oxidative stress