Over the years, use of triazine herbicide atrazine have increased many folds, simultaneously harboring a persistent environmental presence disrupting many developmental processes and reproductive well-being in non-target animals. It is concerning to flag that researches having found bioaccumulation of atrazine in food chains, said to pose serious threats on various organ systems in humans including digestive, and immune systems. On the contrary, existing data couldn’t sufficiently claim to prove the potential toll on reproductive health. This study aims to elucidate the recent findings on altered activity of Matrix-metalloproteinase, with respect to exposure to varying concentrations of Atrazine. Five-week Wister rats of both sexes were administered atrazine via food pellets to detect changes in blood cell count, gonadal histology, hormonal matrix, and pronounced up regulation of matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs). On top of that, our findings reveal, prolonged exposure to atrazine leads to histomorphological changes at levels of epithelial tissue and underlying layers. Exposure to high doses of atrazine caused the test animals to lose body weights and displayed external morphological changes such as changes in body colour and loss of body hairs. We might draw conclusion based on the results obtained, that atrazine exposure revealed hormonal imbalances in both the sexes, and reduced follicular populations in male testes and female ovaries alike.
Saha et al. (Thu,) studied this question.