The toxicological characteristics of Gastrofenzin. IV. Its gonadotropic action

: An evaluation of the gonadotropic effect of Gastrofenzin has been carried out in conditions of 45-day and 90-day oral application (daily, 5 times per week) in male white rats. The experiments are performed in doses 1/20, 1/100 and 1/200 LD50, respectively 33.8, 6.7 and 3.4 mg.kg-1. Functional and morphologic methods of investigation have been used-count, character and mobility, acid and osmotic resistance of the sperm cells, mean number of sperm cells in the sperm tube, spermatogenesis' indices, morphological characteristic of the testes as well as autoradiographic method for determining the proteolytic activity of the acrosome. Irrespective of the application term the highest dose (33.8 mg.kg-1) causes systemic deviations in the functional indicators and physiologic fluctuation of the morphologic parameters characterizing the spermatogenic epithelium at preserved proteolytic activity of the acrosome. The dose 1/20 LD50 (33.8 mg.kg-1) is considered to be effective on the gonads in conditions of three-month chronic oral application of Gastrofensin and the threshold of the gonadotoxic activity is about 1/100 LD50-6.7 mg.kg-1.