Ameliorative role of melatonin againstcypermethrin or gamma irradiation inducedtesticular damage in male rats

Background: this work aimed at studying the protective effect of melatonin(mlt) against cypermethrin or γ-radiation induced testicular damage.material and methods: thirty six male rats were randomly divided into 6groups. control group, group treated with mlt (10 mg/kg b. wt.), groupadministered cypermethrin (25 mg/ kg. b. wt.), group 4 was exposed tofractionated whole body γ-radiation (the sum=8 gy), group 5 was coadministeredwith mlt (10 mg/kg .b. wt.) and cypermethrin (25 mg/kg b. wt.)and finally group 6 rats were supplemented with mlt (10 mg/kg .b. wt.) andsubsequently administered fractionated γ-radiation(the sum=8 gy). aftertreatment for 29 successive days, all animals groups were investigated forhormonal assay, sperm quality, oxidative indices and histological examinationof testicular tissues. results: rat’s treatment with -radiation or cypermethrinshowed a significant decrease in body weight, testis, epididymis, ventralprostate and seminal-vesicles weights. also, a significant increase wasobserved in the levels of tbars and h2o2, while a significant reductionoccurred in the activity of sod, cat and gsh content in testis tissues, inaddition to a significant decrease in testosterone hormone. on the otherhand, a significant increase occurred in fsh and prolactinhormones .moreover, a significant decrease in sperm count and motilityoccured beside a significant increase in abnormal forms. pretreatment of ratswith mlt improved the disturbances induced in the tested parameters of ratseither received cypermethrin or γ-irradiation. conclusion: according to thepresent findings, the ameliorative role of mlt is obvious againstcypermethrin or γ-irradiation induced testicular damage probably, due to itsantioxidative properties.