Potential protective effect of Tualang honey on BPA-induced ovarian toxicity in prepubertal rat

BACKGROUND: To investigate the potential protective effects of Tualang honey against the toxicity effects induced by Bisphenol A (BPA) on pubertal development of ovaries. METHODS: This study was conducted on pre-pubertal female Sprague Dawley rats. Animals were divided into four groups (n = 8 in each group). Group I was administered with vehicle 0.2 ml of corn oil (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) using oral gavage daily for six weeks; these animals served as negative control (CO group), Group II was administered with BPA suspended in corn oil at 10 mg/kg body weight and served as positive control (PC group), Group III was administered with 200 mg/kg body weight of Tualang honey 30 min before the administration of BPA at 10 mg/kg (TH group) while Group IV was administered with 200 mg/kg body weight of Tualang honey 30 min before the administration of corn oil (THC group). Body weight of all animals were monitored weekly. RESULTS: The BPA-exposed animals exhibited disruption of their estrus cycle, while those animals treated with BPA together with Tualang honey, exhibited an improvement in percentage of normal estrous cycle. Their ovaries had lower numbers of atretic follicles compared to the PC group but higher than the CO group. CONCLUSIONS: Tualang honey has a potential role in reducing BPA-induced ovarian toxicity by reducing the morphological abnormalities of the ovarian follicles and improving the normal estrous cycle.