Vet World   Vol.17   February-2024  Article-22

Ameliorative impacts of propolis against testicular toxicity promoted by doxorubicin

Background and Aim: Doxorubicin (DOX) is often used as a chemotherapeutic agent, although it may damage testicular functions. This study was designed to investigate the protective effects of propolis on testicular histological changes, semen parameters, and testosterone concentrations as a means of protecting against testicular damage caused by DOX chemotherapy.

Materials and Methods: Forty-eight male Wistar rats were divided into four groups with 12 animals per group. The first group served as the control. Rats in the second group were administered 4 mg/kg DOX. The third group was administered 4 mg/kg of DOX and 30 mg/kg b.w. propolis. The fourth group was orally dosed daily with 30 mg/kg b.w. propolis.

Results: DOX treatment resulted in a significantly decreased weight gain (WG) rate compared with the control, whereas DOX + propolis resulted in improved WG and returned to the normal range. Testosterone levels were comparable among the experimental groups, with a significant increase in the propolis-treated group. In addition, DOX-treated groups exhibited a remarkable depletion in sperm counts, motility, and viability compared to the other groups.

Conclusion: Most of the histological and hormonal changes resulting from the toxicity of DOX returned to almost normal after treatment of rats with the aqueous extract of propolis, indicating that propolis ameliorated the effects of DOX poisoning on testicular function in male rats. Keywords: doxorubicin, histopathology, propolis, testicular toxicity.

Keywords: doxorubicin, histopathology, propolis, testicular toxicity.

How to cite this article: Alsyaad KM (2024) Ameliorative impacts of propolis against testicular toxicity promoted by doxorubicin, Veterinary World, 17(2): 421–426.

Received: 30-11-2023  Accepted: 31-01-2024     Published online: 20-02-2024

Corresponding author: Khalid M. Alsyaad   E-mail: alsyaad@kku.edu.sa

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.421-426

Copyright: Alsyaad, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.