EVALUATION OF OXIDATIVE STRESS AND REPRODUCTIVE POTENTIAL IN FEMALE RATTUS RATTUS, BANDICOTA BENGALENSIS AND TATERA INDICA RATS.

The Malwa region of Punjab, India, is facing an unprecedented crisis of environmental health linked to indiscriminate, excessive, and unsafe use of pesticides, fertilizers, and poor groundwater quality. The present study was envisaged to investigate the possible effect of environmental contaminants on the reproductive outcome in female Rattus rattus, Bandicota bengalensis and Tatera indica inhabiting South-West region of Punjab in North India. A significant difference in organ weights between Bathinda rats and control rats was observed. Levels of total proteins were found to be decreasein all the rats collected from Bathinda region. Activity levels of OS parameters namely catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione peroxidise (GPx) were differentially alteredand the products of oxidation namely, malondialdehyde increased significantly (p<0.05) in rats collected from Bathinda district as compared to control rats. Histomorphological studies of ovary revealed increased follicular atresia in rats of Malwa region. The results obtained indicate that environmental contaminants for prolonged period might be responsible for altering antioxidant defence system and inducing oxidative stress in rats inhabiting south- west region of Punjab.