Morphological Changes in the Testis of White Rats with Hyerprolactinaemia

Male factor infertility due to endocrine disturbances such as abnormalities in prolactin levels are encountered in a significant proportion of infertile patients. [1]. This case control study was carried out to determine the effects of increased prolactin levels on the morphology of the testis, using 200 male white rats belonging to the wistar strain. The rats were maintained as the control group (G1), 3 hyperprolactinaemic groups induced by using oral largactil (G2), low dose fluphenazine (G3) and high dose fluphenazine (G4). After 100 days, the rats were subjected to serum prolactin (PRL) level measurements. The difference between serum PRL concentrations of rats in G2, G3, and G4 as compared to the control group were highly significant by Student's t-test (p<0.001). Thus it is evident that spermatogenesis is arrested at or before the elongated spermatid formation whereby there is a marked reduction in cellularity and spermatozoa. It is also evident that a few Sertoli cells with a few elongated spermatids attached to them do occur.