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Exposure to China dust exacerbates testicular toxicity induced by cyclophosphamide in mice

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Abstract

This study investigated the potential effects of China dust (CD) exposure on cyclophosphamide (CP)-induced testicular toxicity in mice, focusing on spermatogenesis and oxidative damage. CP treatment reduced testicular and epididymal weight and sperm motility and enhanced sperm abnormality. Histopathological examination presented various morphological alterations in the testis, including increased exfoliation of spermatogenic cells, degeneration of early spermatogenic cells, vacuolation of Sertoli cells, a decreased number of spermatogonia/spermatocytes/spermatids, along with a high number of apoptotic cells. In addition, the testis exhibited reduced glutathione (GSH) levels and glutathione reductase (GR) activity and enhanced malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration. Meanwhile, CD exposure exacerbated testicular histopathological alterations induced by CP. CD exposure also aggravated oxidative damage by increasing the lipid peroxidative product MDA and decreasing GSH levels and antioxidant enzyme activities in the testis. These results suggest that CD exposure exacerbates CP-induced testicular toxicity in mice, which might be attributed to the induction of lipid peroxidation and reduced antioxidant activity.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the researchers at Korea Institute of Toxicology for their technical support.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIT) (NRF-2020R1A4A1019395). This work was also supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF- 2021R1A2C2011673).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University, 77 Yongbong-ro, Buk-gu, 61186, Gwangju, Republic of Korea

    Woong-Il Kim, Je-Oh Lim, So-Won Pak, Se-Jin Lee, In-Sik Shin, Changjong Moon & Jong-Choon Kim

  2. Bioenvironmental Science & Technology Division, Korea Institute of Toxicology, 52834, Jinju, Republic of Korea

    Jeong-Doo Heo

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Contributions

Conceptualization, writing-original draft, and validation: WIK and JOL; Investigation and formal analysis: SWP; Data curation: SJL; Methodology, software, and visualization: ISS; Writing-editing and review: CM, and JDH; supervision and funding acquisition: JCK. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

JDH and JCK mainly designed the study. WIK and JOL performed the experiments. WIK, SWP and SJL analyzed the experimental results. WIK wrote the paper. ISS, CM, JDH and JCK assisted the crucial revision of drafts. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jong-Choon Kim.

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The experimental protocol was performed in accordance with the protocol of the CNU Institutional Animal care and Use Committee (CNU IACUC-YB-2020-109).

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Kim, WI., Lim, JO., Pak, SW. et al. Exposure to China dust exacerbates testicular toxicity induced by cyclophosphamide in mice. Toxicol Res. 39, 115–125 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43188-022-00149-x

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