AVALIAÇÃO DA TOXICOLOGIA REPRODUTIVA DO EFLUENTE DE CURTUME EM MACHOS DE CAMUNDONGOS SWISS

Abstract

It is known that in industries the transformation of the raw skin into leather generates large amounts of organic waste, which attract small mammals (eg, rodents) living in the vicinity of these industries. By foraging the yards of these industries, these animals end up being exposed to the generated effluents. However, attention has not been paid to the impacts this exposure may have on the reproductive biology of these animals. Thus, we evaluated whether the direct contact with these effluents (for a period of 90 days) causes some reproductive harm in males of Swiss mice. At the end of the experimental period we evaluated the sexual behavior of the animals, performed testicular histology analysis; we evaluated the sperm quality and quantity, we used pro-inflammatory markers, as well as evaluated the reproductive performance of the mice. Our data show that the animals exposed to the raw effluent collected in the yard of a tanning industry and to that diluted in water to 5% presented behavioral changes, histological changes in the testes, germinal cell disorganization in the seminiferous tubules, as well as inflammatory process in the intertubular spaces, associated with the increase in the concentration of proinflammatory cytokines (IFN-gamma and CCL2) in the testes. In addition, we observed an increase in sperm abnormalities and a reduction in the total sperm produced, which together with the previously reported alterations may have been responsible for the low reproductive performance of the animals exposed to the pollutant (evaluated from the dominant lethal test). In conclusion, our study demonstrates, first of all, the reproductive impact caused by the direct exposure of small rodents to the tanning effluent, contributing to the understanding of how these pollutants can impact the natural ecosystems.