Pioglitazone, a ppar-gamma ligand inhibited the nicotinamide streptozotocin induced sperm abnormalities in type-2 diabetic wistar rats

ABSTRACT

Oxidative stress due to chronic hyperglycemia is known to cause infertility in diabetic patients. Pioglitazone [PIO], a PPAR-gamma ligand is known to possess the antioxidant property however, its role on the oxidative stress mediated germinal damage in Type-2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM] is poorly studies in the literature. In this study, the effect of PIO [1 and 10 mg/kg, p.o. daily for 4 weeks] was evaluated against the nicotinamide [NA-230 mg/kg, ip] and streptozotocin [STZ-65 mg/kg, ip] induced changes in sperm abnormality and antioxidant status in Wistar rats. The effect of PIO on the male reproductive cells was studied by determining the sperm shape abnormality and sperm count in the experimental T2DM. The antioxidant profile was studied by estimating the serum lipid peroxidation [LPO], glutathione [GSH] and glutathione peroxidase [GPx] levels. The higher dose of PIO [10 mg/kg] significantly [P<0.001] reduced the sperm shape abnormality and increased the sperm count [P<0.00l], besides decreasing [P<0.05] the LPO and enhancing the GSH and GPx levels in the diabetic rats. However, the lower dose of PIO [1 mg/kg] produced inhibitory [P<0.05] effect against the changes induced by T2DM in the sperm shape abnormality and GSH levels. alpha tocopherol tested as alpha standard antioxidant agent prevented [P<0.001] the NA-STZ mediated alterations in sperm abnormalities and antioxidant enzyme levels. The results suggest that the inhibitory effect of PIO against the 12DM induced sperm abnormality could be related to its antioxidant property