Experimental Study of Apoptosis after Castration in Prostate Tissue

The prostate gland is one of the reproductive enclosure glands that its physiological function is necessary for successful reproduction in males. This gland depends on sexual hormones including androgens for its natural function and normal growth and development. So in the case of hyperplasia, hypertrophy or other prostate diseases, the most successful and efficient method of treatment is castration that in some cases is unavoidable. This thesis has been done to survey the effects of the androgen depletion states on the prostate gland and for determining the mechanism of cell death engaged in this state. In this thesis we used two groups of dogs that each group contained 5 dogs. These dogs were under care for 1 month. In this period of time they were surveyed for any possible disease. After this period the dogs in "treatment group were castrated for decreasing the level of the androgen hormones in the blood. The dogs in the "control group" were left intact. After a week of surgery, prostate glands of these dogs were extracted and used for preparing pathological cross sections. These sections have been colored in the TUNEL and H&E methods and then inspected with optical microscope for detecting apoptotic cells. We found that after castration, the size of the prostate gland decreases and microscopically changes of the gland include increased number of apoptotic cells. These results demonstrate that the type of the cell death engaged in prostate gland in androgen deprivation states are Apoptosis.