Acrylamide impairs ovarian function by promoting apoptosis and affecting reproductive hormone release, steroidogenesis and autophagy-related genes: An in vivo study

Abstract

Acrylamide (ACR) toxicity is quite common due to its widespread use in industry and due to the Maillard browning reaction that occurs in foods containing high concentrations of hydrocarbons subjected to high temperatures. This study aimed to elucidate the female reproductive toxicity of ACR in vivo. Fifty-day-old Wistar-Albino female rats were treated with different dosages of ACR (2.5, 10, and 50 mg/kg/day). After treatment, the animals were sacrificed, and serum and ovary samples were collected for histological examination, hormone analysis, TUNEL analysis, and RT-PCR studies. We found that ACR acts by significantly reducing ovarian weight and serum progesterone and estradiol concentrations. In addition, ACR treatment led to pyknotic, heterochromatic characteristics and nuclear fragmentation, as evidenced by hematoxylin staining. The TUNEL assay revealed that granulosa cells were affected after the oral administration of ACR, leading to the apoptosis of follicles at different stages of growth. Compared with the control condition, high doses of ACR (50 mg/kg/day) significantly induced the overexpression of INSL3, CYP17a, IGF1, ESR1, ESR2, ATG5, ATG12 and LC3 in the ovary. Moreover, LC3 mRNA levels significantly increased with increasing doses of ACR (2.5, 10 and 50 mg/kg/day), suggesting that ACR treatment induced autophagy. In conclusion, ACR induced ovarian dysfunction by affecting steroid hormone release, increasing apoptosis and mRNA levels of autophagy-related genes. The eventual correlation between apoptotic granulosa cell death and autophagy needs to be further explored.

Keywords: Acrylamide; Apoptosis; Autophagy; Female reproduction; Ovary; Steroid hormone release.