Quercetin attenuates carbon tetrachloride‐induced testicular damage in rats

Summary This study was conducted to investigate the effect of quercetin on carbon tetrachloride ( CC l 4 )‐induced sperm damages, testicular apoptosis and oxidative stress in male rats. Group 1 served as control, group 2 was treated with only quercetin, group 3 was treated with only CC l 4 and group 4 received CC l 4 + quercetin. All administrations were performed by gavage and maintained for 10 weeks. CC l 4 administration caused significant decreases in absolute and relative reproductive organ weights, sperm motility, concentration and testicular glutathione peroxidase ( GSH ‐Px) and catalase ( CAT ) activities, and significant increases in lipid peroxidation ( LPO ) level, abnormal sperm rate and testicular apoptotic cell index, along with some histopathological damages when compared to the control group. However, administration of CC l 4 together with quercetin provided statistically significant improvements in LPO level, abnormal sperm rate, the degree of histopathological lesions and testicular apoptotic cell index when compared to only CC l 4 group. In addition, improvements observed in absolute and relative weights of reproductive organs, sperm motility and concentration, and testicular GSH ‐Px and CAT activities in group 4 were statistically insignificant when compared to only CC l 4 group. In conclusion, quercetin has antiperoxidative effect, and its oral administration attenuates the CC l 4 ‐induced some damages in male reproductive organs and cells by decreasing the LPO .