Effect of supplementation of tocotrienol on alteration of estrous cycle in female rats subjected to stress / Maria Embong

Menstrual cycle can be altered by many factors including stress. Physiological stress such as exercise has been proved to cause menstrual irregularities. This may be due to the distruption at the hormone level or due to the production of free radical during intense exercise. Antioxidants such as tocotrienol could reduce the activity of free radical thus prevent the damaging effect on the biological structure in the body. Therefore, this study was carried out to observe the effect of supplementation of tocotrienol in female rat estrous cycle that had been put under forced swimming stress. Twenty Sprague Dawley rats were divided into four groups that consist of 5 rats. The first group was the control group where no treatment was given. The second group was given 0.2ml com oil only while the third group was put under force swimming stress. The forth group also was put under force swimming stress but supplemented with 60mg/kg tocotrienol dissolved in 0.2 ml pure com oil. The mean cycle length between control and treated groups were compared using independence T-test with 95% confidence interval. The result showed that mean cycle length of the group that was given 0.2ml com oil was 4.55±0.17 days. For the group that was put under force swimming stress but supplemented with 60mg/kg tocotrienol had mean cycle length of 5.27±0.26 days. These result were statistically no significant different with the control group where the mean cycle length was 4.61 ±0.14 days. Group that have been put under force swimming stress had significantly longer estrous cycle length (6.85±0.40 days) compare with control group, p<0.05.This proved that force swimming stress can alter the estrous cycle by prolonging its length and this alteration can be reversed by supplementation oftocotrienol.