THE EFFECT OF STRESS AND PHYTOESTROGENIZATION IN THE NEONATAL PERIOD ON THE FERTILITY OF ADULT MALE RATS

Abstract

In the paper the significance of milk-feeding period for the formation of male reproductive health is experimentally shown. It has been found that the use of emotional stress and excessive phytoestrogenization, both separately and together, in male rats during breastfeeding leads to certain disorders of the reproductive system in adulthood. Modeled emotional stress or phytoestergenization on the principle of imprinting caused hyperostrogeny, androgen deficiency, changes in the ratio of androgenization/estrogenization in adulthood. The applied factors led to impaired spermatogenesis, inhibition of sexual activity, and decreased reproductive potential. In the stressed animals, the decrease in androgens was such that the testosterone levels did not differ from intact females. In the case of joint application of the factors in the suckling period, in adult male rats there were no clinically significant changes in the sperm count. The concentration of sex hormones corresponded to the physiological norm, sexual behavior was characterized by slightly differentiated changes. However, a 2.5-fold decrease in their fertility (or potential number of offspring) was critical and largest among all study groups. The latter indicates impaired spermatogenesis and the formation of defective sperm, that is, the problem of the parental genome, possibly epigenetic in nature.