The Effects of Physical and Oxidative Stress on the Ovary of the Female Wistar Rat

Abstract

The hallmark of fertility depends on the viability of the reproductive system. The ovary which is responsible for the production of the female gonads is indispensable to the fertile couple. The ovary of the wistar rat and that of the human are very comparable in their anatomy and physiology. Studies on the rat’s ovary can therefore be extrapolated to the humans Stress being any mental or/and physical state that can have an adverse affect on one’s health. This of course involves ones reproductive system, especially through the hypothalamopituitary axis where there are changes in the levels of released cortisol. We used mono and bilateral enucleation as induced physical stress and administration of alcohol as an oxidative stress. These will trigger the stress response of the animal. This study enabled us to find out some of the anatomical changes occurring in the ovaries of the experimental groups as compared to the control. At the end of the experiment, harvested ovaries were weighed and histological slides using haematoxylin and eosin stain were prepared for comparison The Graafian follicles of the enucleated group showed absence of primary oocytes. While the alcohol group showed absence of the oocytes in the follicles and thinning of the germinal epithelium. The alteration in the alcohol group is more marked. There was however no changes in the mean weights of the ovaries.