Abstract
ABSTRACT Female infertility, describe a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term. Selenium, nutritionally essential for human and play critical roles in reproductive system. Formaldehyde is highly toxic on reproductive system. The aim of this work is to investigate the histopathological curative and protective roles of selenium toward formaldehyde induce damage in female reproductive system using albino mice. Method: Female mice (n=50, 25-40 gm) were divided into 5 groups. group 1 (control) administered normal saline (5ml/kg) for 5 days; group 2 received formaldehyde (30mg/kg) for 5 days; group 3 receive selenium (100μg/kg) for 5 days; group 4 administered formaldehyde and selenium (prophylactic) for 5 days; group 5 received formaldehyde for 5 days followed by selenium for another 5 days (curative). At the end of 21 days, animals were sacrificed; ovaries and uterus were removed and fixed in 10% formalin solution for routine histological techniques. Intraperitoneal administration was adopted. Results: Mice received selenium only did not show any significant change in histological structure in ovary and uterus compared to the healthy mice that treated with saline. Formaldehyde treated group showed clear damage in the ovary and uterus structure; there was a great number of growing follicles and few numbers of primordial follicles, thickness of tunica albuginea covering the ovary, decreased prominence of endometrial uterus glands, and proliferative endometrium. Mice administered selenium as prophylaxis showed partial improvement in formaldehyde toxicity. An increase in number of the glands in comparison to the injected group with formaldehyde only was observed. It was noted the presence of some hemorrhage in the stroma uterus, proliferation of the interstitial cells among growing follicles ovary. Mice treated with selenium after formaldehyde toxicity (treatment), showed significant improvement in the damage ovary and uterus induced by formaldehyde, such as presence of little primordial follicle but great number of normal growing follicles; corpora lutea were observed in the ovary and uterus, increase in thickness of luminal epithelium and few small endometrial glands lined with degenerated epithelium and the histological structure was nearly like control group. Conclusion: Formaldehyde cause damage to the histological structure of female reproductive system and treatment by selenium can overcome this damage. KEYWORDS: Selenium, Formaldehyde, Ovary, Uterus.