ORIGINAL ABSTRACT

Glyphosate (GLY), an active ingredient of the most commonly used herbicide, when in crops and feed, is deleterious to male reproductive health. Trehalose (Tre), a naturally non-reducing disaccharide, is shown to counteract the adverse stresses due to its antioxidation effect. Thus, this study was designed to investigate whether Tre can improve GLY-induced testicular damage via suppressing oxidative stress. 60 healthy Hy-Line Brown breeder roosters were utilized to assess the protective effects of Tre supplementation against testicular oxidative damage caused by GLY. Data showed that Tre administration significantly alleviated GLY- induced reduction in testis weight, decreased GLY level in the testis tissues, and alleviated GLY-caused testicular pathological damage. Concurrently, GLY treatment significantly elevated serum malondialdehyde (MDA) and testicular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, decreased serum total anti-oxidation capacity (T-AOC), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) levels, which were all notably reversed by Tre administration. Moreover, GLY- inhibited nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway in rooster testis, a master regulator of oxidative stress, was markedly recovered by Tre administration. In summary, these findings demonstrated that Tre can prevent GLY-induced testicular damage in roosters by ameliorating oxidative stress.