Morphine is one of the naturally occurring phenanthrene alkaloids of opium that induces adverse effects on male reproductive system. Resveratrol is a phytoestrogen and antioxidant of red grape. The main goal is to investigate whether resveratrol could inhibit adverse effects of morphine on sperm cell viability, count, motility as well as testis histology, testosterone hormone and nitric oxide levels in mice. In the present study, 48 male rats were randomly divided into 8 groups (n=6) and were treated intraperitoneally for 14 days with normal saline, resveratrol (2, 8, 20 mg/kg/day), morphine (20 mg/kg/day) and morphine (20 mg/kg/day) + resveratrol (2, 8, 20 mg/kg/day). At the end of experiments, sperm parameters (sperm cell viability, count, motility and morphology), testis weight, the diameter of seminiferous tubules, testosterone hormone level and nitric oxide were analyzed. The data were analyzed by SPSS software for windows (version 20) using one-way ANOVA test followed by Tukey’s post hoc test, and P<0.05 was considered significant. The results indicated that morphine administration significantly decreased testosterone level, count, viability and motility of sperm cells and testis weight and increased nitric oxide compared to the saline group (P=0.000). Administration of resveratrol and resveratrol plus morphine significantly increased motility, count and viability of sperm cells, somniferous tubule diameter and testosterone, while it decreased nitric oxide level compared to morphine group (P=0.025). It seems that resveratrol administration could increase the quality of spermatozoa and prevented morphine-induced adverse effects on sperm parameters.
KEY WORDS: Mice; Morphine; Nitric Oxide; Resveratrol; Spermatogenesis.
