PARTIAL ALLEVIATION OF THE ANTITESTICULAR EFFECT OF PIPECOLINOMETHYLHYDROXYINDANE BY ZINC IN RATS

Abstract

Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, U.S.A. ( Received 31 May 1978) Zinc deficiency in childhood may result in retardation of growth and hypogonadism, since affected adolescent boys show increased growth and sexual maturation after zinc replacement therapy (Sandstead, Prasad, Schulert, Farid, Miale, Bassilly & Darby, 1967; Halsted, Ronaghy, Abadi, Haghshenass, Amirhakemi, Barakat & Reinhold, 1972). Testicular dysfunction has been found after zinc deficiency due to chronic haemodialysis for uraemia and can be reversed by zinc supplements (Antoniou, Shalhoub, Sudhakar & Smith, 1977). Furthermore, oligospermic men, after treatment with zinc, showed increased plasma concentrations of androgens and raised sperm counts (Hartoma, Nahoul & Netter, 1977). The present study investigated the preventative effects of zinc on rats treated with dl -6-( N -α-pipecolinomethyl)-5-hydroxyindane maleate (PMHI), a potent and specific antitesticular agent whose mechanism of action has yet to be determined (Boris, DeMartino & Trmal, 1974). Three groups of 28-day-old male Sprague–Dawley