Radioprotective effects of zinc and selenium on mice spermatogenesis

Abstract

Background: Spermatogenesis system is one of the most radiosensitive organs in the body. A usual therapeutic dose of radiation such as the conventional 2 Gy in each fraction of radiotherapy and lower doses seen in diagnostic radiology or a radiation disaster affect the process of spermatogenesis potently. Selenium and zinc are two important elements playing key roles in the development of sperms and also have radioprotective effects. Objective: In this study aims to evaluate the radioprotective effect of zinc and selenium against radiation-induced mice testis injury. Material and Methods: In this experimental study, 30 mice were divided equally into 6 groups, including control selenium treated, zinc treated, radiation, radiation + selenium, radiation + zinc. Treatments started from 2 days before irradiation with 2 Gy cobalt-60 gamma rays. After 37 days, all mice were killed for histo-pathological evaluations. Results: Results showed that exposure to radiation caused a potent effect on spermatogenesis system. Treatment with selenium reversed these radiation effects po-tently, while zinc had some limited protective effects. Zinc treatment itself caused a detrimental effect on epididymis and, in combination with radiation, it leads to more damage to seminiferous tubules. Conclusion: In contrast to previous studies that proposed zinc to protect sper-matogenesis against various toxic agents, results of this study showed that although zinc may protect from some parameters, it potentiates radiation damage on semi-niferous tubules and has a detrimental effect on the epididymis. By contrast, zinc and selenium could alleviate radiation-induced toxicity on the most of the evaluated parameters.