Effects of Water Avoidance Stress as a Psychological Stress Model and Coenzyme Q10 on Reproductive, Endocrine, and Ovarian Responses in Adult Female Rats.

Psychological stress can affect female reproductive function through behavioral, endocrine, ovarian, and oxidative mechanisms. Antioxidant supplements have therefore attracted attention for their potential to mitigate stress-related reproductive alterations. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a lipid-soluble quinone involved in mitochondrial energy metabolism and is widely used as a dietary supplement. However, whether CoQ10 modulates female reproductive responses to repeated psychological stress remains unclear. Although water avoidance stress (WAS) is a well-established psychogenic stress model, its effects on female reproductive outcomes are still not fully defined. In this study, we examined how repeated WAS affects female reproductive outcomes and whether CoQ10 modifies these effects. Twenty-eight regularly cycling female rats were assigned to sham control, WAS, CoQ10, or WAS + CoQ10 groups. WAS was applied for 1 h/day for 10 days, and CoQ10 was administered orally at 100 mg/kg/day. Repeated WAS did not significantly alter sexual incentive motivation parameters, reproductive hormones, corticosterone, total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), or mast cell count under the present experimental conditions (all