Morphometric changes of rat testis after subchronic oral lead intoxication and D-penicillamine treatment

Lead poisoning is a worldwide health problem and its treatment is under investigation. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of D-Penicillamine in reducing lead induced morphometric changes in rat testis. Male adult rats were exposed to 0.4% lead acetate in drinking water for 8 weeks. After this period 6 rats were sacrificed and testes were removed to evaluate the effects of lead intoxication. The remained lead exposed rats were divided into two groups, one group received distilled water and the other group received oral D-P treatment for six weeks, after one week of recovery. Testis morphometric changes were studied in H and E stained sections. After 8 weeks, width of germinal epithelium and number of sertoli cells in test group were decreased compared with negative and positive control rats (p<0.05), while no changes were observed in the number of spermatogonia or primary spermatocytes. After recovery or treatment, germinal epithelium and sertoli cells were still significantly lower than control group (p