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Black coffee mitigates diethyl phthalate disrupted folliculogenesis, reduced gonadotropins, and ovarian lesions in female albino mice

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Abstract

Phthalates are multifunctional compounds with extensive applications and emerging environmental pollutants. Due to their ubiquity in the environment and unavoidable exposure to humans, concerns have been voiced about public health dangers. This study was aimed to explore the diethyl phthalate (DEP) toxicity and the potential protective effect of black coffee in female Swiss albino mice. Four-week-old mice, weighing 12 ± 1 g were segregated into five groups (n = 10), designated as G-I (without any treatment), G-II (treated with corn oil), G-III (exposed to 1.5 mg/g body wt. (B.W.) DEP), G-IV (received 2 μg/g B.W coffee), and G-V (co-administrated with 1.5 mg/g DEP and 2 μg/g B.W coffee). Before dose administration, the coffee extract was assessed for its antioxidant potential through FRAP, TPC, and GC–MS analyses. Respective phthalates/coffee doses were administrated orally, once a day for 8 weeks consecutively starting from the prepubescent stage. After 56 days, mice were acclimated for 4 days then dissected. Morphological assessments showed an irregular shape of the ovaries in DEP-treated mice as compared to the control. The average bodyweight of DEP-intoxicated mice (p ≤ 0.05) increased notably against control, while DEP plus coffee group showed a regular gain in the average weight of mice. The gonado-somatic index showed non-significant variations among all groups. Micrometric studies showed that the diameter of secondary follicles (115 µm) in the ovaries of DEP-exposed mice (p ≤ 0.001) decreased significantly as compared to control (204 µm); conversely, follicular diameter in the coffee control group (248) increased significantly. Serum FSH and LH levels were significantly increased in DEP-exposed mice with a noteworthy decrease in estrogen level while hormonal levels of all other groups were comparable to control. Histological sections of DEP-exposed mice ovaries showed anatomical disruptions contrary to other groups, which were comparable with control. Antioxidant potential was checked in ovaries homogenates; FRAP values showed a notable decrease in DEP group in comparison with the control group, in contrast to G-V, when DEP was co-administrated with coffee. This study concluded that black coffee has protective effect, against DEP-instigated reproductive toxicity in Swiss albino female mice.

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Data availability

Most of the data generated during this study are included in this article. However, raw data sheets and histopathological figures are available from the corresponding as well as co-authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are highly obliged to the Institute of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, for providing research facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Chaman Ara,  Asmatullah, Nageena Ramzan, Hafiz Abdullah Shakir, Faiza Yaseen & Nida Shahzad

  2. Department of Zoology, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan

    Shaukat Ali & Iram Liaqat

  3. Department of Wildlife and Ecology, The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan

    Asia Iqbal

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  1. Chaman Ara
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  2. Asmatullah
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  3. Nageena Ramzan
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Chaman Ara and Asmatullah; data curation: Chaman Ara, Asmatullah, Shaukat Ali, Nageena Ramzan, Hafiz Abdullah Shakir, and Faiza Yaseen; formal analysis: Chaman Ara, Asmatullah, Nida Shahzad, Shaukat Ali, and Asia Iqbal; investigation: Chaman Ara, Asmatullah, Shaukat Ali, and Hafiz Abdullah Shakir; Methodology: Chaman Ara, Asmatullah, Asia Iqbal, Shaukat Ali, Farrah Batool, Hafiz Abdullah Shakir, and Aqsa Arshad; histopathology: Naila Butt, Nageena Ramzan, and Faiza Yaseen; software: Shaukat Ali and Hafiz Abdullah Shakir; Supervision: Chaman Ara and Asmatullah; writing original draft: Faiza Yaseen, Iram Liaqat, and Faiza Yasee; review and editing: Chaman Ara, Asmatullah, Hafiz Abdullah Shakir, and Shaukat Ali; all authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shaukat Ali.

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All animal trials were executed according to local and worldwide procedures. The nearby way is the Wet op de dierproeven (article 9) of Dutch law (international) and an associated rule planned via the Bureau of Animal Research Licensing, Local University, as detailed in our earlier papers (Ali et al. 2019, 2020; Hussain et al. 2020; Ara et al. 2020; Khan et al. 2019; Mumtaz et al. 2019; Mughal et al. 2019; Dar et al. 2019). The rearing and use of mice were carried out using NIH Publication “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals” (NRC 2004) and with the approval vide No. D/681/UZ dated 04–04-2019 by the local bioethical committee of the university on animal experimentation.

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Ara, C., Asmatullah, Ramzan, N. et al. Black coffee mitigates diethyl phthalate disrupted folliculogenesis, reduced gonadotropins, and ovarian lesions in female albino mice. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 47254–47266 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19138-6

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