Effect of prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke on the testicular and epididymal structure of rats induced to experimental model of pulmonary emphysema

• Grant number: 12/02319-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2012
• End date: April 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Morphology - Embryology
• Principal Investigator: Isabel Cristina Cherici Camargo
• Grantee: Amanda de Genova Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Cigarette smoking has been increasingly early in terms of the world population, becoming a concern for the public health department, since the smoking habit promotes serious damage to the organism, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It's well known, in the reproductive tract, that tobacco smoke promotes changes in the testicular structure and the seminal parameters, human and animal. There are no reports about the effects of smoking on structural aspects of the testis and epididymis of the animals induced experimental model of pulmonary emphysema. The study proposed is a part of a wide project, which object is the cellular therapy for the treatment of pulmonary emphysema. Therefore, the proposal has as its goal the evaluation of the testicular and epididymal tissue of adult rats induced to the pulmonary emphysema after prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke (30 weeks). Wistar adult rats (n=12) will be casually divided between the groups: control (exposed to compressed air) and tabagism (exposed to cigarette smoke). In an inhalation chamber, the animals are exposed to smoke for 15 minutes continuously, and 5 minutes from ambient air for 3 hours/day, divided into three periods of one hour. After 30 weeks, the animals will be sacrificed and the reproductive organs will be collected and weighed. Testis and epididymis will be processed by usual routine histological, for morphological and morphometric analysis and quantification of germ cells in the light microscopy.(AU)