Design of the Work
Herein, sixty male albino rats were allotted into six groups, (ten rats each).
Group 1: Rats received free tap water orally for 8 weeks and served as control group.
Group 2: Rats received acrylamide in a daily dose of (35 mg /kg) (Friedman, 2003) for 8 weeks. Acrylamide was dissolved in drinking water, and the estimated daily intake of water was about 10 mg/100g rat as previously reported (Slone et al., 2012); this group served as the model.
Group 3: Rats were administered TQ dissolved in 10% DMSO and water (15 mg /kg, IP) (Tavakkoli, Ahmadi, Razavi, & Hosseinzadeh, 2017), twice weekly for 8 weeks.
Group 4: Rats were administered capsaicin dissolved in 10% DMSO and water (10 mg/kg, PO) once daily for 8 weeks (Shimeda et al., 2005).
Group 5: Rats challenged with acrylamide were administered TQ dissolved in 10% DMSO and water (15 mg/kg, IP) twice weekly for 8 weeks.
Group 6: Rats challenged with acrylamide were administered by oral gavage capsaicin (10 mg/kg) dissolved in 10% DMSO and water once daily for 8 weeks.
Twenty-four hours after the last treatment, retro-orbital blood samples were withdrawn under light ether anesthesia using heparinized microcapillaries (Optilab, Berlin, Germany). The serum was separated by centrifugation at 4000 rpm at 4°C using cooling centrifuge (Haereus Biofuge, Berlin, Germany). Serum was then stored at -70°C until use for the assessment of biochemical parameters (testosterone, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH)). After terminal bleeding, the animals were euthanized by cervical dislocation and their testes as well as cauda epididymides were dissected out, washed with saline, blotted dry on filter papers, and weighed to determine the relative testicular body weight.
The cauda epididymides were processed for gaining the seminal fluid. The fluid was used to assess sperm count and motility as well as the incidence of head and tail abnormalities. Right testes were homogenized in ice-cold 0.15 M KC1 (w/v) and the homogenate was used for investigation of the following biochemical parameters. Some of the left testes were preserved in Boiun’s solution and used thereafter for histopathological investigation. Histological specimens were used for immunohistochemical localization of NF-κB /p65 and immunofluorescent detection of occludin.