The present study investigates the effect of an ethanolic extract of Hygrophila auriculata seeds on the male reproductive organ weights, testicular lipid peroxidation and antioxidant potential, testosterone levels, and effects on sperm quality parameters in a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic male rat model, a widely used experimental model of diabetes-associated infertility. The extract was administered orally to STZ-induced diabetic rats to evaluate its effect on reproductive parameters in terms of evaluating sperm count, motility, viability, morphology and chromatin dispersal assay along with organ weight of male reproductive organs and serum testosterone levels. Antioxidant activity in testicular extract was assessed by measuring lipid peroxidation, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, reduced glutathione and catalase assays. The results revealed that athough the male reproductive organ weights decreased significantly in diabetic and treatment groups as compared to the control, the semen quality parameters such as sperm count, motility and viability improved significantly (p<0.05) in the treatment groups. The H. auriculata seed extract significantly (p<0.05) reduced lipid peroxidation in the testicular tissue as compared to the untreated diabetic controls. H. auriculata seed extract was not observed to have ameliorative potential against sperm DNA damage. The ethanolic extract of H. auriculata seed significantly (p<0.05) improved serum testosterone concentration as compared to the control and diabetic rat model groups implying an androgenic effect of the extract. The study provides evidence that the ethanolic extract of H. auriculata seeds protects testicular integrity and sperm quality by reducing lipid peroxidation levels in a diabetic rat model.
Myilraj et al. (Sun,) studied this question.