Aim: To study the anti-spermatogenic mechanism of supra-physiological doses of testosterone undecanoate (TU).Methods: Twenty fertile adult men received four intramuscular injections of TU at monthly intervals, 1000 mg...Aim: To study the anti-spermatogenic mechanism of supra-physiological doses of testosterone undecanoate (TU).Methods: Twenty fertile adult men received four intramuscular injections of TU at monthly intervals, 1000 mg uponadmission and 500 mg for the subsequent injections. The apoptotic germ cells in the semen were studied under light mi-croscope with tenninal deoxynucleotidyl tmnsferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) and Wright-Giem-sa staining methods. Results: After treatment, the sperm density and the number of spermatogenic cells in the semenwere significantly decreased ( P < 0.01), while the apoptotic ratios of spermatocytes and spermatids increased significantly( P <0.01) as compared with the pretreatment levels. Apoptosis was found to be augmented in the whole series of castoffspennatogenic cells. Conclusion: Besides its suppressive effect on spermatogenesis through a negative feed-backmechanism, TU enhances apoptosis of spermatogenic cells, which may be an additional mechanism of its anti-spermato-genic activity. ( Asian J Androl 1999 Sep; 1: 155 - 158)展开更多
文摘Aim: To study the anti-spermatogenic mechanism of supra-physiological doses of testosterone undecanoate (TU).Methods: Twenty fertile adult men received four intramuscular injections of TU at monthly intervals, 1000 mg uponadmission and 500 mg for the subsequent injections. The apoptotic germ cells in the semen were studied under light mi-croscope with tenninal deoxynucleotidyl tmnsferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) and Wright-Giem-sa staining methods. Results: After treatment, the sperm density and the number of spermatogenic cells in the semenwere significantly decreased ( P < 0.01), while the apoptotic ratios of spermatocytes and spermatids increased significantly( P <0.01) as compared with the pretreatment levels. Apoptosis was found to be augmented in the whole series of castoffspennatogenic cells. Conclusion: Besides its suppressive effect on spermatogenesis through a negative feed-backmechanism, TU enhances apoptosis of spermatogenic cells, which may be an additional mechanism of its anti-spermato-genic activity. ( Asian J Androl 1999 Sep; 1: 155 - 158)