Nasiri E, Noori Mogehi S M J, Dehpour A, Abolhasani F, Sadeghipour H,
Volume 61, Issue 6 (9-2003)
Obstructive cholestasis is associated with overproduction of endogenous opioids (EOP), nitric oxide (NO), and cytokins in the blood streams. Therefore we investigated the relationship between obstructive cholestasis and function of germ cells in adult male rats.
Material and Methods: To study this, we used three groups of animals: No-surgery, Sham-surgery, and surgical ligation of the bile duct. After 3 weeks all animal were killed by ether, serum concentrations of FSH, LH and testosterone were determined by Radioimmunoassay, apoptosis was evaluated by DNA fragmentation detected by in situ terminal deoxynucloetidyl Transfrase-mediated dUTP nike end labeling (TUNEL).
Results: The mean of FSH level in cholestatic, control and sham groups were 13.22+ 1.038, 18.14+ 1.276, and 16.92+ 1.072 ng/ml, respectively. The mean of LH level in cholestatic, control and sham groups were 0.83 + 0.21, 2.058 ± 0.26, and 1.84 + 0.17 ng/ml, respectively. In addition, the mean of testosterone level in cholestatic, control and sham groups were 1.52 ± 0.16, 2.41 ± 0.18, and 2.31 + 0.14 ng/ml, respectively. The results of this study were indicated that serum FSH, LH and testosterone were significantly lower in cholestatic than control and sham groups (p=0.0195, P= 0.0029, and P=0.0023, respectively). However there was no significant difference in apoptotic index between all of groups (P=0.195). The apoptotic index in cholestatic, control and sham rats were 9.897± 1.374, 7.086 + 0.91, and 7.729 + 1.101, respectively.
Conclusion: These findings have been shown which as obstructive cholestasis was decreased the levels of serum gonadotropins and testosterone but it has no significant effector testicular germinal cells apoptosis.
