Telfairia occidentalis for the alteration of expression ratio of bax/bcl-2 mrna in lead-exposed rat testicular tissues

This study was aimed at estimating the levels of important proapoptotic and antiapoptotic genes expressed in the testicular tissue of rats fed with Telfairia occidentalis after being exposed to lead nitrate. Eighteen healthy Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly allocated into three groups containing six animals per group. Group A served as control. Group B animals were administered 75 mg/kg/b.w. of lead nitrate only. Group C animals were also administered 75 mg/kg/b.w. of lead nitrate as well as 300 mg/kg/b.w. of an alcoholic (methanol) extraction of T. occidentalis (METo). Lead exposure and METo administration lasted 2 weeks, and the rats were sacrificed on the 15th day. The testes and epididymis were removed and RNA was isolated from paraffin-embedded testicular tissues. Total RNA was reverse transcribed and cDNA was amplified by Real-Time quantitative PCR to determine the mRNA expression levels of antiapoptotic B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl2) and proapoptotic Bcl-2-associated X (Bax) gene. The 75 mg/kg lead nitrate significantly (p < 0.05) led to an increment in the amount of expressed Bcl-2 mRNA as well as a significant downgrading in the amount of expressed Bax mRNA. Administration of 300 mg/kg METo significantly (p < 0.05) prevented the alteration of Bcl-2 mRNA and Bax mRNA expression levels. 216These results demonstrate that T. occidentalis has anticancer effects due to its effects on the expression characteristics of important genes of the anti-/ pro-apoptotic pathway.