Dietary Exposure to Oxidized Frying Oil from Fetus to Adulthood Suppresses Male Reproductive Development by Altering Testicular Cholesterol and Testosterone Homeostasis in Sprague Dawley Rats

Abstract

ABSTRACTBackgroundDietary frying oil may have endocrine-disrupting effects, as a feminization effect was observed in cohorts of C57BL/6J male mice fetuses from dams consuming oxidized frying oil (OFO) during pregnancy.ObjectiveThe aim of present study was to test the hypothesis that OFO is an anti-androgen.MethodsIn experiment 1, male progeny of Sprague Dawley female rats fed fresh oil or an OFO diet (10 g fat/100 g, from fresh or 24-h–fried soybean oil; [control diet (C) and OFO groups, respectively] from midgestation through lactation were studied. Pups were weaned at 3 wk of age and then consumed their mothers’ diet until 9 wk of age. In addition, a group of dams and pups that consumed a high-fat diet (HF; 10 g fried and 20 g fresh soybean oil/100 g) was included to counteract body-weight loss associated with OFO ingestion. Indices of male reproductive development and testosterone homeostasis were measured. In experiment 2, male rats were allocated to C and OFO groups (treated as above) and indices of male fertility compared at 9–10 wk of age.ResultsIn experiment 1, final body weights of the HF group were lower (17%) than the C group but higher (14%) than the OFO group (P < 0.0001 for each). In addition to abnormalities in seminiferous tubules, HF and OFO groups did not differ from one another, but, compared with the C group, had delayed preputial separation (4.9 d) and reductions in serum testosterone concentrations (17–74%), anogenital distance (8–20%), weights of androgen-dependent tissues (8–30%), testicular testosterone and cholesterol concentrations (30–40%), and mRNA levels of genes involved in steroidogenesis and cholesterol homeostasis (30–70%). In experiment 2, OFO-exposed males had 20% lower sperm motility (P < 0.05); however, when mated to normal females, pregnancy rates and litter sizes did not differ between OFO and C groups.ConclusionsThe anti-androgenic effect of OFO in Sprague Dawley rats was attributed to decreased testicular concentrations of cholesterol (testosterone precursor) and not body-weight loss.