Acute Damage to the Sperm Quality and Spermatogenesis in Male Mice Exposed to Curcumin-Loaded Nanoparticles

Abstract

Background

Curcumin has shown many pharmacological activities in both preclinical and clinical studies. Many technologies have been developed and applied to improve the solubility and bioavailability of curcumin, especially the nanotechnology-based delivery systems. However, there has been evidence that certain nanoparticles have potential reproductive toxicity in practice.

Methods

Curcumin-poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-PEG nanoparticles (Cur-PLGA-NPs for short) were prepared. The Cur-PLGA-NPs were evaluated with its effect on the proliferation of mouse testicular cell lines in vitro and spermatogenesis in vivo, while PLGA-NPs were used as control. For animal experiments, male BALB/c mice were treated with 20 mg/kg of Cur-PLGA-NPs for continuous 10 days via tail vein injection.

Results

We found the curcumin nanoparticles suppressed the proliferation of testicular cell lines in vitro. Furthermore, a short-term intravenous delivery of curcumin-loaded nanoparticles could be harmful to the differentiation of spermatogonia, the elongation of spermatids, as well as the motility of mature sperms.

Conclusion

In the present study, we disclosed the acute damage on mouse spermatogenesis and sperm parameters by curcumin-loaded nanoparticles. Our results suggested that the reproductive toxicity of nanoformulated curcumin needs to be prudently evaluated before its application.