Effect of Tartrazine and Erythrosine on the Expression of Some Proinflammatory and Testicular Genes in the Testis of Male Wistar Rat

ABSTRACT Recently, progressive use of synthetic food additives has paid more attention on their benefit and less attention on their effect on fertility. Tartrazine and Erythrosine are synthetic food colorants widely used in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of Tartrazine and Erythrosine on the expression of some proinflammatory and some Testicular genes in the testis of male wistar rats. A total of 25 male wistar rats were used for the experiment and were divided randomly into 5 groups with group 1 as the control treated with animal feed and water and groups 2,3,4 and 5 treated with 2.5mg/kg, 5mg/kg, 10mg/kg and 20mg/kg of tartrazine and erythrosine respectively. At the end of the experimental period (28 days), the testis was harvested and preserved in trizol solution and was further used for the gene expression assay. The result revealed up regulation in interleukin-1α, interleukin-1 β, testicular protein kinase-1 and tumor necrotic factor α and down regulation in FSH-R, interleukin-1 α, TESK-1, luteinizing hormone and tumor necrotic factor α in the groups treated with the synthetic food colorants when compared to the control though dose dependent. The result indicates that the dyes could impair testicular function as it down regulates IL-1α which could make the tissue susceptible to inflammation which may lead to Orchitis (inflammation of the testis). Moreso, the down regulation of the fertility hormone receptors (FSH-R and LH-R) indicates that the dyes could also impair spermatogenic process leading to infertility in male.