Histopathological Effects of Single Dose Treatment of Diazinon on Testes Structure in Rat

Objective: diazinon (dzn) is an organophosphorate synthetic insecticide widely usedin agriculture. dzn has been observed to cause many changes, such as alterations inandrogenic hormones. in the present study, the effect of dzn treatment on the structureof the testes and spermatogenesis in young adult albino rats was evaluated.materials and methods: adult rats were randomly divided into three groups including:controls (n=6), dzn-treatment group a (n=6) and dzn-treatment group b (n=6). commercialdzn was injected intraperitoneally in a single dose (a=25 mg/kg and b=2.5mg/kg), corresponding to ld50. thirty five days after injection, animals were sacrificed formorphological and histological examinations.results: there was a significant reduction in seminiferous tubule size in group a incomparison with both controls and group b (p<0.001). the number of spermatocytes,leydig and germinal cells were significantly decreased (p<0.001). these differenceswere not significant between the controls and group b; however, the number of spermatocytesin group b was significantly lower than in the controls (p<0.01).conclusion: this study revealed that the reproductive function of adult rats and spermatogenesisare sensitive to dzn treatment. in addition, the effect of dzn on morphologicalparameters was significantly dose dependent. further study of the control dznand the actual mechanism whereby it exerts toxic effects on male infertility is required