Alterações gonadais em ratos Wistar machos pré-púberes e púberes causadas pela intoxicação aguda por Senecio brasiliensis

Abstract

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are toxic compounds found in several plants of the genus Senecio spp, being described as the main cause of natural intoxication in cattle caused mostly by the consumption of the plant Senecio brasiliensis (S. brasiliensis). In Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, the occurrence of this plant is remarkable, being found throughout the State. Recently, deleterious effect on the gonadal tissue of pregnant cows was attributed to this plant and low reproductive rates in the cattle herd was also reported. Oftentimes, the etiologic factor that triggered lower rates in reproduction than expected is underdiagnosed, since there is a very little knowledge about the action of PAs in the herd reproduction system. The present study aims to evaluate the toxic deleterious effects of PAs in Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus) testicles, in which the aqueous extract obtained at the ratio (2g of dry plant per 100g of body weight) will be administered by gavage, obtaining the acute form of poisoning. For this experiment, four groups were formed to evaluate the acute form of poisoning in prepubertal and pubertal rats. The challenged animals received sufficient aqueous extract of the plant for developmenting acute form of poisoning, allowing the histological structures analysis that search the presence of changes in different stages of development testicular cells (prepubertal and pubertal). Initially, the pourpose is to reproduce the acute poisoning by PAs in rats and confirm the toxic deleterious effects in the gonadal tissue from the acute intoxication by S. brasiliensis aqueous extract, allowing to initiate future studies to evaluate the gonadal toxicological behavior in species of economic interest such as cattle.