Cadmium is highly toxic metal in various tissues and organs. Cadmium induced apoptosis through reactive oxidative species. Previous studies showed that cadmium decreased antioxidant enzyme and induced lipid peroxidation. Furthermore cadmium induced ap...
Cadmium is highly toxic metal in various tissues and organs. Cadmium induced apoptosis through reactive oxidative species. Previous studies showed that cadmium decreased antioxidant enzyme and induced lipid peroxidation. Furthermore cadmium induced apoptosis and necrosis characterized of DNA fragmentation, nuclear condensation and cell shrinkage. Cadmium has also been reported to induce apoptosis through difference pathway in each other cell types. However it is unclear that cadmium induced apoptosis mechanism in rat testis. Our studies investigated that cadmium the mechanism of cadmium induced apoptosis through translocation of apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) in rat testis. In addition, we checked that the effects of antioxidant such as ascorbic acid and N-acetyl-_(L)-cysteine on cadmium induced apoptosis. Our results showed that cadmium treatment induced apoptosis through TUNEL assay and DNA fragmentation in rat testis, however, the administration of antioxidant inhibited cadmium-induced apoptosis as antioxidant scavenged cadmium induced oxidative stress. Testis treated cadmium underwent mitochondriamediated pathway associated with nuclear translocation of apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF). Following PARP-1 and calpain-I activation, AIF released from mitochondria to nuclear to cause DNA damage. Our studies determined that cadmium induced apoptosis through molecular PARP-1, calpain-I activation which related AIF translocation in cadmium treated rat testis. In addition, we also found that protein expression of Bcl-2 protein family which associated mitochondria-mediated apoptosis increased in cadmium treated rat testis except Bim and Bcl-x. It is notable that ascorbic acid supplementation of antioxidant blocked the release of AIF from mitochondria including PARP-1 and calpain-1 activation which closely connected AIF translocation. Finally, these results indicated that cadmium induced mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in rat testis and supplementation with antioxidants cadmium-induced apoptosis by blocked ROS generation.