Vet Med - Czech, 2025, 70(6):203-217 | DOI: 10.17221/116/2024-VETMED

Antioxidant and cytokine modulation in PCOS rats protected with probiotics, myo-inositol, and herbal extractsOriginal Paper

AA Zaki ORCID...1,2, NM Alharbi ORCID...3, TI Almundarij1, SM Albarrak ORCID...4
1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
2 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
3 National Center for the Prevention & Control of Plants Pests & Animal Diseases, Buraydah, Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia
4 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Diagnosis, Collage of Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia

This study investigated the pathophysiology of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and evaluated the protective effects of various treatments in immature female Wistar rats (N = 48). The rats were divided into 6 groups: Olive oil injection (negative control, G1); testosterone propionate (TP)-induced PCOS (G2); probiotic + TP (G3); myo-inositol (myo-ins) + TP (G4); U. dioica extract + TP (G5); W. somnifera extract + TP (G6). The body weight, body weight gain, and percentage gain were measured weekly and then transformed using the base-10 logarithm (log10). TNF-α, IL-4, IL-10, and IL-17 were weekly measured using ELISA kits. Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) were analysed in the serum and liver extracts. The W. somnifera significantly reduced the TNF-α levels (P < 0.01). The probiotic and myo-ins significantly elevated the IL-10 levels (P < 0.01). Both plant extracts moderately restored the IL-10 levels. The probiotic and U. dioica administration significantly reduced the IL-17 levels (P < 0.01). The W. somnifera administration also decreased the IL-17 levels, though the effect was less pronounced than that of U. dioica. The probiotic, myo-ins, and W. somnifera groups exhibited enhanced CAT activity (P < 0.05). W. somnifera showed significant increases in the SOD and GSH-Px activities (P < 0.01), showing the most dramatic improvement. The use of these four treatments as a monotherapy in this study resulted in different changes. Therefore, further investigation is necessary to evaluate the protective effects of combining duos or trios of these treatments against this disease.

Keywords: antioxidants; ELISA; immunity; myo-inositol; polycystic ovarian syndrome

Received: December 15, 2024; Revised: April 14, 2025; Accepted: May 5, 2025; Prepublished online: June 27, 2025; Published: June 30, 2025  Show citation

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Zaki A, Alharbi N, Almundarij T, Albarrak S. Antioxidant and cytokine modulation in PCOS rats protected with probiotics, myo-inositol, and herbal extracts. Vet Med - Czech. 2025;70(6):203-217. doi: 10.17221/116/2024-VETMED.
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