Benzo-a-pyrene induced genotoxicity and cytotoxicity in germ cells of mice: Intervention of radish and cress

Exposure to chemicals like benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) can lead to structural changes in DNA and as a consequence to increased incidence of diseases with a genetic basis, as well as oxidative stress in the testis. However its ability to induce oxidative DNA damage in germ cells is not fully investigated. In the present study, BaP was used to induce 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), a specific DNA adducts for oxidative DNA damage, in testis and epididymal sperm and the possible protection role of radish and/or cress was investigated. The results revealed that BaP induced a significant increase in DNA damage in both tissues, as indicated by increased DNA strand breaks in a fluorimetric analysis of DNA unwinding (FADU). Furthermore, it increased the oxidative damage in epididymal sperm, as indicated by the increase in sperm abnormalities, lipid peroxidation (LPO), accompanied with a decrease in glutathione content (GSH), sperm count and sperm motility as well as induction of filtration in the histology of the testis. Treatment with radish and/or cress oil prior to BaP injection succeeded in reducing the germ cell genotoxicity as indicated by the decrease in DNA damage, 8-OHdG levels, sperm abnormalities, LPO level and increased sperm counts, motility and GSH content. Moreover, cress was found to be effective than radish and the combined treatment was more effective than the single treatment. It could be concluded that, pretreatment with radish and/or cress improved the epididymal sperm quality and reduced the genotoxicity and DNA damage induced by BaP, thereby declaring the protective role of radish and cress.