Oral exposure of humans by excess amounts of arsenic may cause disturbances of the reproductive system. In the present study, such exposure was modelled in rats, with the support of sperm principal parameters and histopa-thological observations. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups where the group I was served as a normal control, group II was received sodium meta-arsenite as arsenic (10 mg/kg b.w/day) and a combi-nation of sodium meta- arsenite and sodium selenite (3 mg/kg b.w/day) in group III. After 6 weeks, there was no significant change in testis weight and in total motility of all the three experimental groups, whereas, rapid moving spermatozoa, moderately moving spermatozoa and slow moving spermatozoa were significantly decreased in arsenic treated rats as compared to control rats. The other sperm principal parameters like progressiveness, average path velocity, straightness linear velocity (VSL), curvilinear velocity (VCL), straightness, linearity sperm head elongation ratio, area, linearity amplitude of lateral head department (ALH) and beat cross frequency (BCF) were found to be reduced in arsenic intoxicated rats. These results are not correlated with the histological studies. On oral admini-stration of selenium ameliorated the adverse effects of arsenic as compared to arsenic alone treated rats. Our findings clearly demonstrate that administration of selenium could prevent some of the deleterious effects of arsenic in the testis.

ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
  Chemicals and Reagents
  Animals
  Preparation and Administration of Arsenic and Selenium
  Experimental Time Line
  Measurement of Sperm Motility, Velocity, Movements and Morphology
  Histopathological Examination of Testis
  Statistical Analysis
 RESULTS
  Effect of Selenium and Arsenic on Testis Weight and Sperm Motility
  Effect of Selenium and Arsenic on Detailed Motion Characteristics
  Changes in Motion and Morphological Index
  Effect of Selenium and Arsenic on ALH and BCF
  Effect of Selenium and Arsenic on Histopathological Studies
 DISCUSSION
 CONCLUSION
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES

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• Abdulkadhar Mohamed Jalaludeen(Department of Animal Science, College of Natural Science, Konkuk University)
• Ran Lee(Department of Animal Science, College of Natural Science, Konkuk University)
• Won Young Lee(Department of Animal Science, College of Natural Science, Konkuk University)
• Dong Hoon Kim(Animal Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Animal Science, RDA)
• Hyuk Song(Department of Animal Science, College of Natural Science, Konkuk University) Corresponding author