Abstract

TNowadays, substantial attention is being directed towards using probiotics for treating many diseases. However, the probable role of probiotics in alleviating infertility problems did not receive much attention. Keeping this in mind, the present study was carried out to determine the capability of L. plantarum 2621 to ameliorate the uropathogenic colonization and detrimental effects induced by sperm agglutinating Escherichia coli in a male murine model. For this, male Balb/c mice were divided into 3 groups viz. group I (PBS); group II (10⁴/10⁸ of E. coli); group III (10⁴/10⁸ of L. plantarum 2621) and tissue somatic indices, bacterial load, seminal parameters (sperm count, motility and viability), tissue histology and MDA levels were evaluated to assess the impact of different doses of individual bacteria. The administration of E. coli (10⁴/10⁸cfu) alone affected all the parameters negatively irrespective of dose, while in case of L. plantarum (10^{4/108cfu), results obtained were comparable to PBS. After this, the combined effect of E. coli and L. plantarum 2621 was evaluated and experiments were further carried out to check the ability of L. plantarum (108cfu) to ameliorate the negative impact induced by E. coli (104/108cfu). For this, male mice were divided in to 2 groups viz. group I (PBS) and group II. Group II was further subdivided in to 2 subgroups viz. subgroup I (104cfu of E. coli + 108 of L. plantarum 2621) and subgroup II (108cfu of E. coli + 108 of L. plantarum 2621). Group I showed no significant change in any of the parameters, while in case of Subgroup I of group II, complete amelioration of the negative impact was observed in all the parameters as compared to subgroup II of group II where the negative impact of E. coli was observed.}