Potential of ascorbic acid as antioxidant on chemotherapeutic agent induced change in morphology of testes.

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the morphological changes in number of seminiferous tubules that are produced by anthracycline doxorubicin on the testes of mice.

METHODS: This experimental study was conducted at Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, from March to August 2012, and comprised male mice aged up to five weeks. The mice were separated into 3 equal groups: A, B and C. Each animal was treated with normal saline 1ml intraperitoneal in group A, doxorubicin alone in group B and doxorubicin + vitamin C in group C. At the end of the study, animals were sacrificed and the testes were kept in Bouin's fluid and tissue processing and staining were done. SPSS 16 was used for data analysis.

RESULTS: Of the 30 mice, there were 10(33.3%) in each group. The overall mean age was 5±1 weeks. The mean number of tubules was 20.28±3.29 in group A, 9.39±3.01 in group B and 18.56±2.82 in group C. The mean diameter of seminiferous tubules of testes was 218.26 ± 7.45µm in group A, 123.96±11.84 in group B and 180.86±12.13 in group C (p<0.001). Co-administration of vitamin C with doxorubicin significantly reduced (p<0.001) the seminiferous epithelial damage compared to doxorubicin group.

CONCLUSIONS: The antioxidant vitamin C had a significant role in ameliorating the damage of testes induced by doxorubicin.