effect of obstructive cholestasis on gonadotropin and germ cells apoptosis in the adult male rat

introduction: obstructive cholestasis is associated with overproduction of endogenous opioids (eop) ,nitric oxide (no) and cytokines in the blood stream. these consequences can affect sex hormones. sincefertility is a result of physiological balance of sex hormones, we investigated the relationship betweenobstructive cholestasis and sex hormones and apoptotic germ cells in adult male rats. material and methods: to study this, we used three groups of animals: control (no-surgery), sham(surgical control), and cholestatic (surgical ligation of the bile duct). after 3 weeks all animal were killed byether, and serum concentrations of inhibin b , fsh and lh were determined by elisa andradioimmunoassay respectively. testicular germinal cell apoptosis was evaluated by dna fragmentationdetected by in situ terminal deoxynucloetidyl transfrase-mediated dutp nike end labeling (tunel). results: the findings of this study showed that lh and fsh levels were significantly decreased incholestatic compared to control and sham groups (p<0.05). however, inhibin b level was significantly higherin cholestasis compared to control and sham (p<0.05). on the other hand, no statistically significant differencewas seen between germinal cell apoptotic index of cholestatic group and that of the other groups (p>0.19). conclusion: these findings revealed that although the serum level change has no significant effect ontesticular germinal cell apoptosis. we speculate that testicular germinal cell apoptosis is not just dependent ongonadoteropin hormone and that other factors may be involved.