Ameliorative prowess of quercetin on the cytoarchitecture of testes in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to formaldehyde

Formaldehyde is a metabolic product of methanol that is further broken down into formic acid. Long-term exposure to formaldehyde has been reported to cause adverse health effects. This study was designed to investigate whether quercetin could mitigate formaldehyde-induced damage to the reproductive organs. Forty rats were used and divided into four groups. Group A served as the control and was not exposed to formaldehyde, while Groups B–D served as treatment groups and were exposed to 40% formaldehyde for 1, 2, and 3 h, respectively. At the end of the exposure period, five animals from each group were randomly selected and euthanized. The remaining five animals in each group received quercetin at a dose of 100 mg/kg for four weeks to evaluate its potential ameliorative effect, after which they were euthanized. The results showed a reduction in body weight and hormonal parameters in the treatment groups compared with the control group. Histological examination revealed distorted seminiferous tubules and absence of spermatozoa in the lumen of animals exposed to formaldehyde, including those treated with quercetin. In conclusion, both hormonal and histological analyses demonstrated that formaldehyde exerted adverse effects on the histoarchitecture of the testes, and quercetin was unable to ameliorate the toxicity induced by formaldehyde.