Title
Effect of Lepidium meyenii (maca) on testicular function of mice with chemically and physically induced subfertility
Date Issued
01 October 2016
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Lepidium meyenii (maca) in chemically and physically subfertile mice. After 35 days, the following groups of mice were evaluated: control, sham, chemical subfertility, chemical subfertility–maca-supplemented, physical subfertility, physical subfertility–maca-supplemented and maca-supplemented only. Motility (32.36% ± 5.34%) and sperm count (44.4 ± 5.37 × 106/ml) in the chemically and physically subfertile mice (11.81% ± 4.06%, 17.34 ± 13.07 × 106/ml) decreased compared to the control (75.53% ± 2.97% and 57.4 ± 19.6 106/ml) and sham (53.5% ± 7.86% and 58.4 ± 14.10 106/ml). Maca was able to reverse the deleterious effect of motility (76.36 ± 1.97) as well as sperm count (53.5 ± 9.18 × 106/ml) on chemical subfertility. In contrast, maca did not reverse the effects of induced physical subfertility nor motility (18.78% ± 14.41%) or sperm count (20.17 ± 11.20 × 106/ml). The percentage of sperm DNA fragmentation in the physically subfertile mice increased (11.1% ± 19.29%) compared to the control (0.84% ± 0.85%). However, in the physically subfertile group, maca decreased sperm DNA fragmentation (2.29% ± 2.30%) closer to the sham (1.04% ± 0.62%) and the control (0.84% ± 0.85%). The group supplemented only with maca showed 0.54% ± 0.50% of spermatozoa with DNA fragmentation. Yet, the differences observed were statistically not significant. In conclusion, it appears that maca activates the cytochrome P450 system after chemically induced subfertility. However, it does not reverse the low mitochondrial membrane potential in spermatozoa compromised in the physical subfertility group.
Start page
927
End page
934
Volume
48
Issue
8
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Andrología Biología reproductiva
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84988978865
PubMed ID
Source
Andrologia
ISSN of the container
03034569
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus