Effects of dietary supplementation of different oils and conjugated linoleic acid on the reproductive and metabolic aspects of male mice

The present study was carried out to examine first, if diets enriched with 320 g of the base diet with common dietary oils including fish oil, olive oil, hydrogenated sunflower seed (H-SFS) oil, flaxseed oil and sunflower seed oil (SFS) could induce weight gain and alter reproductive and metabolic characteristics of male mice. Second, whether the addition of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA, 10% of the diet) could ameliorate any negative effects. In this cross-sectional study, 90 four-week-old male NMRI mice were used in two consecutive experiments. A high level of dietary oils negatively affected some reproductive and metabolic characteristics of male mice (p < 0.05), specifically, sunflower seed oil enrichment resulted in higher HDL levels and apoptosis of germinal epithelial cells. An olive oil-enriched diet caused an increase in plasma triglyceride concentrations and germinal cell apoptosis, as well as a decrease in sperm concentration and perturbed spermatogenesis. When CLA was fed in conjunction with dietary oils it successfully mitigated some of the negative reproductive and metabolic characteristics. We conclude that male reproductive processes are affected by high dietary oils, even before signs of obesity are evident. Inclusion of dietary CLA may provide some benefit to offset negative effects, although further studies are required.