Effects of MDMA (ecstasy) on apoptosis and heat shock protein (HSP70) expression in adult rat testis

Abstract

The findings revealed that MDMA administration increases the level of immunoreactivity of HSP70 and TUNEL-positive cells in the testicular tissue.

Effect of ethanol on the changes in testicular protein expression in adult male rats

“…Interestingly, this study showed significant increase in testicular HSP70 expression in the ethanol group for the first time. This finding corroborates with previous studies demonstrating increased expression of HSP70 in rat testis treated with the carbon tetrachloride group (Kamal & Omran, 2013) and 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine or ecstasy (Mobaraki, Seghatoleslam, Fazel, & Ebrahimzadeh‐Bideskan, 2018). In ethanol treatment, the increase in HSP70 was also investigated in the pulmonary tissue of rats (Porras, Strauss, Rodriguez, & Anselmi, 2006) and in the human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line (Akagi et al., 2013).…”

“…Additionally, it was suggested that HSP70 also has an important role in apoptotic prevention (Mobaraki et al, 2018). Therefore, increase in HSP70 expression in this study might be to regain functional proteins and to protect apoptosis in testis induced by ethanol.…”

Substance Abuse and Male Hypogonadism

“…Regarding spermatogenesis, amphetamines induce apoptosis in murine testicular germ cells [114]. Oxidative stress, overproduction of serotonin and GABA, thermic rise, and decreased expression of progesterone and estradiol receptors in testis have been called into question in the pathogenesis of testicular damage [111,116,119].…”

“…In another study conducted on rats, MDMA significantly increased the number of apoptotic TUNEL-positive cells in both germinal epithelium and Leydig cells, while germinal epithelium thickness and diameter of the tubules decreased. In parallel, an increase in body temperature and in immunoreactivity of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) was observed [119]. Since testes are sensitive to temperature and HSP are produced in response to thermic stress to stop caspase activation and inhibit the apoptotic process, the Authors hypothesized that MDMA-induced hyperthermia could activate apoptosis in rat testicular tissue [119].…”

“…Inhibition of GnRH and LH in animal models [81,83] Reduced expression of LH receptor on testis in animal models [86] Reduced activity of testicular 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in animal models [86] ↓ Induction of apoptosis [71] Cocaine ↔ Panhypopituitarism for pituitary infarction or inflammation (case reports) [96,97] ↓ Testicular vasoconstriction and ischemia [99] Induction of apoptosis [102] Pro-oxidant effect (reperfusion injury) [103] Amphetamines ↓ Decreased expression of GnRH mRNA [112] Activation of adenylate cyclase [106] Inhibition of 3b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, P450c17, and 17-ketosteroid reductase [107] Reduced Ca 2 + influx [107] Increased testicular GABA concentration [111] ↓ Induction of apoptosis [114][115][116] Pro-oxidant effect [110] Testicular thermic damage [119] Increased testicular serotonin concentration [115] Increased testicular GABA concentration [111] Reduced testicular expression of progesterone and estrogen receptors [116] Opioids ↓ Inhibition of GnRH secretion [120,134] Hyperprolactinemia [120] ↓ Induction of apoptosis [128,140] Pro-oxidant effect [128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138]…”