Table 4.

Alterations in the female reproductive system caused by ZnO NPs.

Administration/Dose/Species/Size of NPs	Changes	References
Intravenous injection 4–200 mg/kg/twice a week; 1 month Wistar rats 10–30 nm	- Ovaries: follicular cysts, inflammatory lesions, hyperemia, and corpus luteum increased - Uterus: epithelial destruction and endometrial gland hyperplasia	Mohammad Hosseini et al., 2019 [62]
Intraperitoneal injection 100, 200 mg/kg/day; 21 days Wistar albino rats 10–30 nm	- Increased markers of apoptosis (caspase 3, caspase 9, Bcl, Bax) - Follicle and ovarian tissue degeneration	Efendic et al., 2022 [63]
Per os 100 mg/kg/day; 3 days Kunming mice not specified	- Inflammatory cells in ovaries - Accumulation of NPs in uterus and ovaries - Structural changes in the myometrium	Kuang et al., 2021 [64]