Administration of high dose of methamphetamine has detrimental effects on sperm parameters and DNA integrity in mice

Mojdeh Sabour; Arezoo Khoradmehr; Seyyed Mehdi Kalantar; Amir Hossein Danafar; Marjan Omidi; Iman Halvaei; Ali Nabi; Saeed Ghasemi-Esmailabad; Ali Reza Talebi

Administration of high dose of methamphetamine has detrimental effects on sperm parameters and DNA integrity in mice

Int J Reprod Biomed. 2017 Mar;15(3):161-168.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Islamic Azad University of Ashkhezar, Yazd, Iran.
² Research and Clinical Center for Infertility, Yazd Reproductive Sciences Institute, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
³ Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran.
⁴ Department of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Department of Biology and Anatomy, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.

PMID: 28580449
PMCID: PMC5447833

Abstract

Background: Methamphetamine (MA) was shown to have harmful effects on male reproductive system.

Objective: To investigate probable effects of daily administration of MA on sperm parameters and chromatin/DNA integrity in mouse.

Material and methods: Thirty-five NMRI male mice were divided into five groups including low, medium, and high dosage groups which were injected intraperitoneally with 4, 8 and 15 mg/kg/day for 35 days, respectively. Normal saline was injected in sham group and no medications were used in control group. Then, the mice were killed and caudal epididymis of each animal was cut and placed in Ham's F10 medium for sperm retrieval. To evaluate sperm chromatin abnormalities, the aniline blue, toluidine blue and chromomycine A3 were used. For sperm DNA integrity and apoptosis, the acridine orange, sperm chromatin dispersion, and TUNEL assay were applied. For sperm morphology, Papanicolaou staining was done.

Results: Normal morphology and progressive motility of spermatozoa decreased in medium and high dosage groups in comparison with the control group (p=0.035). There was a significant increase in rate of aniline blue, toluidine blue, and chromomycine A3 positive spermatozoa in high dosage group. In a similar manner, there was an increase in rates of acridine orange, TUNEL and sperm chromatin dispersion positive sperm cells in high dosage group with respect to others.

Conclusion: MA abuse in a dose-dependent manner could have detrimental effects on male reproductive indices including sperm parameters and sperm chromatin/DNA integrity in mice.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Methamphetamine; Sperm; Sperm chromatin.