The role of chemical agents in aggravation or amelioration of infertility is widely acknowledged, however, their impact in cases of microbial induced infertility is yet to be deciphered. Further, Escherichia coli is known to reduce the reproductive potential of male mice therefor in the light of present information, this work was carried out to study the effect of the chemical agents viz. carnitine, tamoxifen and nictotine on E. coli induced infertility. For this, in vitro effect of carnitine/tamoxifen/nicotine was assessed on human spermatozoa when coincubated with E. coli. The results showed that carnitine and a tamoxifen at lower concentrations enhanced the motility and viability of sperms but at higher concentrations they proved to be toxic. Nicotine on the other hand was found to negatively influence the motility and viability of spermatozoa at all concentrations. For in vivo relevance of these results, male Balb/c mice were intraperitoneally inoculated with these chemical compounds challenged intravasaly with E. coli. The results revealed that carnitine and tamoxifen were able to ameliorate the negative impact of E. coli on male reproductive potential but nicotine aggravated the same. Therefore, it could be speculated that a healthier lifestyle has the ability to avert the microbial induced decreased reproductive potential.

Keywords: Escherichia coli; Tamoxifen; Nicotine.