Chemical and Nutraceutical Studies on Infertility of Albino Rats Induced by Cadmium Chloride

Background and objective: Infertility in couples is rated one in every eight couple worldwide which affects 15% of couples and a male factor is found to be solely responsible or in conjunction with a female factor in 50% of cases. The natural chemicals found in rocca and red cabbage leaves breakdown into compounds like indole-3-carbinol, which has anti-cancer property. Flavonoids of the crop have good therapeutic potential in inflammation and pain. Meanwhile, this investigation aimed to evaluate the effect of rocca leaves and red cabbage leaves on male infertility rats.

Materials and methods: Thirty-six adult male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into six groups. Group 1: Normal rats fed on basal diet as control negative (C-), Group 2: Control positive C+, in which infertility rats were fed on basal diet. Group 3: Infertility rats fed on basal diet and 5% rocca leaves. Group 4: Infertility rats fed on basal diet and 10% rocca leaves. Group 5: Infertility rats fed on basal diet and 5% red cabbage leaves. Group 6: Infertility rats fed on basal diet and 10% red cabbage leaves. At the end of experiment, after 28 days of feeding, all serum samples were analyzed for biochemical parameters.

Results: Injection with cadmium chloride caused a significant increase in the level of glucose, urea, creatinine, uric acid, AST, ALT, ALP, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDLc, VLDLc, AI, Glob, TB, IB, DB and LH hormone while a significant decrease was recorded in HDLc, testosterone, FSH hormones, TP and Alb. Meanwhile, in infertility rats then treated with rocca leaves 5 and 10% and red cabbage leaves at the same doses 5 and 10% caused significant improvement in all tested parameters.

Conclusion: The obtained results demonstrated that rocca leaves and red cabbage leaves had significant improvement in testosterone, Follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, total protein, albumin and lipids profile in cadmium chloride induced infertility in rats.

Keywords: Infertility; Luteinizing hormone; albumin; cadmium chloride; lipids profile; red cabbage leaves; rocca leaves; total protein.