An in vitro bioassay to assess the potential global toxicity of waters on spermatogenesis: a pilot study.

Many toxicants are present in water as a mixture. Male infertility is one of the environmental impacts in developed countries. Using our rat seminiferous tubule culture model, we evaluated the effects of waters of different origins, on several parameters of the seminiferous epithelium.

Effects of a mixture of low doses of atrazine and benzo[a]pyrene on the rat seminiferous epithelium either during or after the establishment of the blood-testis barrier in the rat seminiferous tubule culture model.

Atrazine (ATZ), a widely used agricultural pesticide and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a ubiquitous environmental human carcinogen can induce alterations of spermatogenesis. In the present study, we showed first that our seminiferous tubule culture model, in bicameral chambers, allowed the settlement of the blood-testis barrier (BTB) in 8-day-old male rat cultures and the differentiation of spermatogonia into round spermatids.The effect of a mixture of 1 μg/L of ATZ and 1 μg/L of BaP was then investigated either during or after the establishment of the BTB by using 8- or 20-22-day-old rats.

Dynamic Structuration of Physical Chitosan Hydrogels.

We studied the microstructure of physical chitosan hydrogels formed by the neutralization of chitosan aqueous solutions highlighting the structural gradients within thick gels (up to a thickness of 16 mm). We explored a high polymer concentrations range (C ≥ 1.0% w/w) with different molar masses of chitosan and different concentrations of the coagulation agent.

Effects of low doses of carbendazim or iprodione either separately or in mixture on the pubertal rat seminiferous epithelium: An ex vivo study.

It has been shown that non-cytotoxic doses of Carbendazim (CBZ), a broad-spectrum benzimidazole fungicide, possess endocrine-disrupting (androgen-like) actions, ex vivo, on the pubertal rat seminiferous epithelium. Iprodione (IPR), a dicarboximide fungicide, is also known to be an endocrine-disrupter (anti-androgen). The effect of a mixture of these two pesticides was investigated in the validated rat seminiferous tubule culture model.