Fish Oil and Vitamin E Consumption During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Improve Mice Offsprings’ Testis Tissue

Although Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and an antioxidants are essential nutrients known to be required for reproduction, an increasing trend was observed in consumption of n-6 fatty acids (FA) rather than n-3 FA. on the other hand, many studies have been done to show the key role of omega-3 FA in maternal nutrition on the development of brain and retina, but the testicular tissue has not been studied. Main objective was investigation of maternal dietary fish oil with vitamin E effects on offsprings testis. Forty famale mice were divided (n=10) into; n-6 (control), n-3, n-6+vitamin E(VITE) and n-3+VE. mice fed experimental diets adlibitum during 14 days before mating to end of breastfeeding day.After weaning offsprings fed standard diet in their groups until  puberty. At eights week, body weight was recorded and mice wereanestheized. For histological assessments, testis tissue was collected. All data was analyzed by SAS. weight at weaning decreased in n-3 than n-6 (P<0.05). weight at puberty decreased in n-6+VE (P<0.001) than others. Number of spermatogonia in n-3 was greater than others (P<0.05). Number of leydig cell was higher in n-6 group than n-3(P=0.03). Sertoli cells in n-3+VE was greater than that in n-3 and n-6+VE ( P<0.05). These results indicated that fish oil and vitamin E consumption during pregnancy and breastfeeding improve offsprings testis tissue. Considering use of supplements and antioxidant in the mother s diet is an important subject that cannot be evaluated solely by considering an organ or tissue which warrants further studies.

Keywords:

Maternal Diet , Fish Oil , Vitamin E , Testis