Evaluation of toxic effect of cadmium on sperm count, sperm motility and sperm abnormality in albino mice

Cadmium (Cd) is an extremely toxic environmental pollutant and is one of the biggest threats to the current and future world. The present work was designed to evaluate the detrimental effects of cadmium on male fertility by concerning the sperm parameters after acute and chronic exposure to albino mice. For this, experimental mice were divided into three groups. Group I were kept as control. Group II animals were injected with a single dose (acute dose) of 2mgkg-1 body weight of cadmium chloride (CdCl2) intraperitoneally`(i.p.) and sacrificed at the intervals of 1, 7, 15 and 30 days post treatment. Group III mice were administered with CdCl2 at a dose of 0.1mgkg-1 body weight, i.p. daily (chronic dose) and autopsies were done on 15 and 30 days post treatment. In the present study, mice exposed to different doses of cadmium (groups 2 and 3) showed a significant decrease in the sperm count, sperm motility and increase in the fraction of morphologically abnormal sperms as compared to control mice. The testicular weight was also found to be significantly reduced in cadmium treated groups. However, these alterations were found to be more devastating in the chronic dose treated group.