Effects of the medroxy-progesterone acetate on the testes of the adult albino rat

Abstract EN

The present work was designed to study the effects of single hormone, the medroxyprogesterone on the testes as a trial for controlling the process of spermatogenesis.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the histological changes that take place in the testes as a result of administration of this hormone as one of the methods which can be used nationally for male contraception.

Thirty adult male rats were used in this work They were classified into three groups, control, experimental and recovery groups.

The used drug is now widely used as female contraceptive method and is under trial and experimentally used as a method for male contraception.

The dose applied was nearly based on the same widely used for human male and female contraception trials.

150 mg of medroxyprogesterone was given for each experimental animal as 5mg /day intramuscularly for one month duration One day later after the period of injection, the rats were sacrificed, their testes were extracted and fixed in glutraldehyde solution for one day.

The specimens were processed for obtaining semithin and ultrathin sections to study the micro and ultra structure of the individual testicular cells.

Single quantitative measurement, the weighing of the testes was employed.

The results of the present work revealed that the hormonal regimen that was applied leads to considerable and striking histological findings.

There was complete disappearance of spermatids from the experimental group, an important finding coinciding with and explaining the azospermia that was recorded by previous investigators and help for future studies on methods of human male contraception.

After the period of recovery, there was incomplete reversibility in the form of redevelopment of rounded spermatids but only to the level of Golgi stage, which needs more time to form mature spermatids and hence normal sperms.

There was marked histological distortion of most cellular components of the seminiferous tubules including Sertoli cells, spermatogonia and spermatocytes in the form of degenerative processes involving the cytoplasmic organelles as well as the nuclear structure.