The Protective Effects of Alcoholic Ginger Extract on Histological Changes of Testis in Doxorubicin-Treated Wistar Rats

Doxorubicin (DOX) has a wide spread use in cancer chemotherapy and Zingiber officinale (ginger) has androgenic property and effects on fertility. The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effects of Alcoholic extract of ginger on reproductive toxicity induced by DOX in male rats. In this experimental study, 56adult Wistar male rats were randomly divided into 7 groups of 8. The extract was orally administered an hour after intraperitoneal injection of DOX. DOX injection was carried out once a week for four weeks. On the day 29, testes were removed, fixed, sectioned, stained and examined histologically by light microscope. According to the findings, DOX caused an increase in interstitial space and deformation of cells in DOX group. Conversely, the number of spermatids, and leydig cells were significantly (p<0.05) decreased compared to the control group. Moreover, concomitant consumption of ginger alcoholic extract and DOX significantly (p<0.05) improved the induced toxicity. It was concluded that ginger alcoholic extract could prevent DOX toxic effect on testicular structure and therefore improve male reproductive activities