INTRODUCTION Monosodium L- glutamate (MSG) is a major flavor enhancer used as a food additive; its concentrations vary in different foods (Walker et al., 2000). Nowadays, the safe concentration of MSG in foods and its toxicity in human is still a controversial issue (Beyreuther et al., 2007). In animals, MSG at higher doses was demonstrated to be a neurotoxic salt that could alter the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and damage neurons in the hypothalamic nuclei. The ability of monosodium glutamate to damage nerve cells of the hypothalamus is a pointer to the fact that it may alter the neural control of reproductive hormone secretion via the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal regulatory axis. Such alterations in reproductive hormone secretion may adversely affect the reproductive capacity of the affected animals (Seo et al., 2010). Those findings imply that free glutamate dissociated from MSG may act on their specific receptors in the central neurons or some peripheral cells, resulting in their pathological alterations. Several reports have recently been indicating that administration of MSG may affect …show more content…
By the end of the experiment, animals were anaesthetized by pentobarbitone sodium (40 mg/kg, i.p) and sacrificed by cervical dislocation. Histological preparations: The testis were dissected out, cleaned and grossly examined for any changes then trimmed from tunica vaginalis and epididymis, weighed and then fixed by immersion in Bouin’s fluid for 48 hours. Later, they were dehydrated in graded concentrations of ethanol, cleared in xylene, and embedded in paraffin wax. The 5 μm thick sections were cut, mounted on glass slides, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin for light microscopy. Photomicrographs were captured using a Nikon light ECLIPSE E200 microscope equipped with a DXM1200 digital