Effect of Maternal Water Restriction on Sexual Behavior, Reproductive Performance, and Reproductive Hormones of Male Rat Offspring

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Drinking water restriction that a pregnant female may encounter is one of the major stressors that could affect pregnancy outcome and understanding its effects is important in animal welfare concerns and pregnancy outcomes for women or animals. To the best of our knowledge, maternal drinking water restriction has not yet been investigated in previous studies as a potential factor affecting reproductive performance of male rat offspring over first and second generations. Therefore, we aimed to assess the consequences of maternal drinking water restriction stress on sexual behavior, reproductive performance, and reproductive hormones of male rat offspring. The 50% maternal water restriction during the second half of pregnancy reduced body weights of rat dams and offspring at birth and negatively impacted some reproductive characteristics. However, reproductive performance and hormones of males were not adversely affected. ABSTRACT: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of maternal water restriction on sexual behavior, reproductive performance, and reproductive hormones of male rat offspring. Forty pregnant female rats were divided into two equal groups: Control (C) and water-restricted (WR). Control dams had ad libitum water access throughout pregnancy, while dams in the WR group were subjected to 50% water-restriction from day 10 of pregnancy onwards. The maternal water restriction provoked a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in body weight of dams before delivery and at birth and litter body weights of offspring at birth. Maternal water restriction did not affect relative weights of reproductive and body organs of male rat offspring. All hormonal concentrations, sperm count, and vitality in male rat offspring were not significantly affected by maternal water restriction. Maternal water restriction exposure induced significant (p < 0.05) reduction in intromission latency, intromission frequency, and post-ejaculation interval in male rat offspring while a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the ejaculation latency was detected in maternal WR group. In conclusion, this study suggests that maternal water restriction had a negative impact on some reproductive characteristics but did not severely affect reproductive performance and reproductive hormones of male rat offspring.