Effect of Selenium, Vitamin E, and Antioxidants on Testicular Function in Rats12

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Abstract
Active spermatogenesis was observed in some of the seminiferous tubules of seleniumdeficient rats born to females on a selenium-deficient diet, and only a very few spermatozoa could be recovered from the cauda epididymis of these animals. The motility of spermatozoa from these males was invariably very poor and the majority of the sperm cells showed breakage near the middle piece or principal piece of the tail. Vitamin E supplementation, even at highly elevated levels (d-α-tocopherol acetate, 1000 ppm) did not alleviate these selenium-deficiency symptoms. Rats receiving selenium-deficient diets with antioxidant supplementation also produced semen, which contained, in most cases, nonmotile spermatozoa. The role of selendium on spermatogenesis in rats is apparently specific and cannot be substituted either by vitamin E or by the antioxidants tested in this study.

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