الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Infertility is one of the major health problems in life for most men, which exceed through exposure to many dangerous chemicals particularly herbicides. Among herbicides, Atrazine (ATR) is a toxic pollutant known to exhibit toxic effects on the male reproductive system. The use of natural antioxidant agent compounds such as N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) may play an effective role in reducing such hazardous effect. Therefore, the aim of this study was to demonstrate the adverse biological action of ATR on male reproductive system, in addition to declare the possible role of NAC to protect or minimize these effects.Twenty adult male albino rats weighed 155±6 g were used in this study, they were divided into four groups; five rats in each as the follow;Control group: Rats without any extra addition.N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) treated group: Rats orally administered freshly prepared NAC (200mg/kg bw) day by day for 21 days.Atrazine (ATR) treated group: Rats were orally administered freshly prepared ATR (200mg/kg bw) day by day for 21 days.N-acetyl cysteine and atrazine treated group: Rats were orally administered both NAC and ATR by the same dose, route and time as group 2 and 3.The rats were weighed weekly to obtain body weight changes. At the end of the experimental period, the animals were fasted overnight then sacrificed after slight halothane anesthesia blood samples were collected into clean non heparinized tubes, left to clot then centrifuged at 805 xg to obtain sera, rats were dissected, testes and epididymes specimens were collected to determine some biochemical and sperm analysis parameters.The obtained results can be summarized as follow:Atrazine administration causes the following:A significant decrease in body weight gain, relative testicular and epididymes weights compared to control.A significant increase in MDA and NO content in testicular tissue homogenate.A significant decrease in the GSH content, SOD and CAT activities in testicular tissue and in serum γ -GT activity.A significant increase in serum TL, TC, TG uric acid and urea concentration.A significant decrease in serum concentration of testosterone, FSH as well as that of LH.A significant decrease in sperm count, motility and vitality with significant increase in number of sperm abnormalities.The effect of NAC plus ATR:The administration of NAC plus ATR partially has protective effects in the most adverse estimated biochemical parameters and sperm analysis induced by ATR where the body weight gain, testes and epididymes kept within the normal value, oxidative stress markers decline, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants markers increased if compared with that given ATR, the lipid profile, urea and uric acid concentration decrease, increase hormones concentrations and spermatogenic parameters distinguished nearly to that in control one .This effect can be attributed to NAC’s potent antioxidant property and high ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species. Thus, the present study suggest the harmful effect of exposure to herbicides and benefits of use some natural supplements especially those having antioxidant effects to minimize the toxic effects of ATR toxicity and keep normal fertility in men.