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Nickel-induced oxidative stress causes cell death in testicles: implications for male infertility

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Abstract

Aligarh region is well known for its lock industry. This lock industry utilises nickel for electroplating. There have been informal reports of infertility in men and women living near the lock industry. We analysed field water samples to investigate this link, and the results showed considerable nickel contamination. To further validate our results, we exposed male rats to relevant nickel levels in drinking water. This experimental exposure resulted in abnormal sperm morphology, decline in sperm count, significant change in activities of antioxidant enzymes, pronounced oxidative stress in the rat spermatocytes and decrease in serum testosterone level, as well as damage in the hypothalamus and pituitary (in all cases, the changes were most significant at the highest concentration used i.e 2.5 mg/l). The breeding experiments showed decline in live birth rate, while pups did not survive post birth in cages where males were given 2 and 2.5 mg/l concentrations of nickel in drinking water prior to mating. Our data strongly indicate a link between industrial nickel exposure and male infertility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Saima Parveen & Imrana Naseem

  2. Department of Kulliyat, Faculty of Unani Medicine, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Asim Rizvi

  3. Department of Pathology, JNMC, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Kafil Akhtar

  4. Department of Anatomy, JNMC, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Aijaz Ahmed Khan

Authors
  1. Saima Parveen
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  2. Asim Rizvi
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  3. Kafil Akhtar
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  4. Aijaz Ahmed Khan
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  5. Imrana Naseem
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Contributions

IN, AR and SP planned, designed the experiments. SP collected samples, analyzed data, wrote the manuscript, handled animals, performed microscopy experiments, data analysis and biochemical estimations. KA performed testicular tissues histopathology. AAK performed brain histopathology. IN supervised the study, provided materials and intellectual input and contributed towards the manuscript writing. The authors declare that all data were generated in-house and that no paper mill was used.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Imrana Naseem.

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Ethical approval

All animal experiments were carried out under relevant guidelines and regulations, after obtaining ethical clearance issued by the Ethical Committee of the Department of Biochemistry (Registration number 714/GO/Re/S/02/CPCSEA), Aligarh Muslim University. The experiments were conducted based on the guidelines of the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), Animal Welfare Division, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.

Wistar rats weighing 150–170 gm (4–5 months old) were used for experimentation. The animals were acclimatised for 7 days prior to treatment and were housed in a room in the animal house, also approved by the department’s Institutional Animal Ethical Committee (IAEC). The room was maintained at 25 ± 2 °C with a 12-h day and night cycle with water and food provided ad libitum. The animals were fed with standard diet from Ashirwad Industries, Chandigarh, India.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kafil Akhtar contributed in testis histopathology. Aijaz Ahmed Khan contributed in brain histopathology

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Parveen, S., Rizvi, A., Akhtar, K. et al. Nickel-induced oxidative stress causes cell death in testicles: implications for male infertility. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 397, 1659–1670 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-023-02713-0

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