Semen parameter alteration, histological changes and role of oxidative stress in adult rat epididymis on exposure to electronic cigarette refill liquid
Abstract
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are devices intended to substitute conventional cigarettes, with the aim of being less harmful. In a previous report, we showed that intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of e-cigarette liquid (E-liquid), with or without nicotine, induced toxicity in the testes of Wistar rats by disrupting oxidative balance and steroidogenesis. In the present work, we further evaluated the impact of e-liquid with or without nicotine on the epididymis of rats using the same procedure. Results showed that e-liquid treatments led to alteration of semen parameters, with a significant drop of at least 50% in sperm vitality, a significant increase of morphologically abnormal spermatozoa and an imbalance of redox status in comparison to the control group. A significant raise of 1.4 fold, compared to the untreated rats, in myeloperoxidase (MPO) granules after both treatments was recorded, suggesting an inflammatory state. Histopathological examination confirmed a marked reduction in sperm count in the cauda epididymis. Data of this study suggest that the pro-oxidant properties of e-liquid with or without nicotine, in addition to testicular defects, could lead to an inflammatory state in the epididymis, causing alterations in the semen parameters. These data provide additional information on the impact of e-liquid on the reproductive system.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Exposed rats showed lower plasma testosterone levels.
“Exposed rats also showed lower plasma testosterone levels (El Golli et al., 2016;Rahali et al., 2018)”
From Use of e-cigarettes associated with lower sperm counts in a cross-sectional study of young men from the general population (2020) · cites this paper as Rahali et al., 2018
In adult rats, exposure to e-cigarette liquid with tobacco flavour, with or without nicotine, reduced sperm concentration and caused histopathological changes in the testes.
“Compared to controls, adult rats exposed to e-cigarette liquid with tobacco flavour with or without nicotine both showed reduced sperm concentration and histopathological changes in the testes suggesting adverse effects of the e-liquid per se.”
From Use of e-cigarettes associated with lower sperm counts in a cross-sectional study of young men from the general population (2020) · cites this paper as Rahali et al., 2018
Animal studies have shown that intraperitoneal exposure to e-cigarette liquids was associated with impaired testis function including decreased testosterone levels independent of containing nicotine or not.
“however, animal studies have shown that intraperitoneal exposure to e-cigarette liquids was associated with impaired testis function including decreased testosterone levels independent of containing nicotine or not (El Golli et al., 2016;Rahali et al., 2018).”
From Use of e-cigarettes associated with lower sperm counts in a cross-sectional study of young men from the general population (2020) · cites this paper as Rahali et al., 2018
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Holmboe, S. A., Priskorn, L., Jensen, T. K., Skakkebaek, N. E., Andersson, A.-M., & Jørgensen, N. (2020) · Human Reproduction · doi:10.1093/humrep/deaa089 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
- Authors
- Rahali, D.
- Affiliations
- Tunis El Manar University (TN)
- Corresponding author
- Rahali, Dalila
- Venue
- The Chinese Journal of Physiology
- Publisher
- Medknow
- Published
- 2018-04-30
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 75-84
- ISSN
- 0304-4920 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2802422698
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Chinese Journal of Physiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Sperm and Testicular Function
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Biochemistry › Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stress
- Keywords
- nicotine, epididymis, semen parameters, sperm viability, sperm morphology, oxidative stress, myeloperoxidase, epididymal inflammation, cauda epididymis, reproductive toxicity, Wistar rats
- MeSH terms
- Vaping, Animals, Cell Survival, Epididymis, Injections, Intraperitoneal, Male, Peroxidase, Sperm Count, Spermatozoa, Testosterone, Rats, Wistar, Oxidative Stress, Nicotinic Agonists, Inflammation Mediators, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
