Nandrolone decanoate administration can increase apoptosis in spermatogenesis cell lines in male rats

Introduction: Anabolic – androgenic steroids (AAS) are used at high doses by athletes for improving athletic ability, muscle mass and physical appearance. Unfortunately, the abuse of these agents has been significantly increased. It has been established that exercise and high doses of AAS may influence the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, which can in turn affect testicular apoptosis and male fertility. However, the effect of the combination of exercise and high doses of AAS on testicular apoptosis is not known .This study investigated combined effects of exercise and high doses of nandrolone decanoate (an AAS) on the sperm quality, male sex organs weight and spermatogenenic apoptosis. Materials and methods: For the study 30 rats were randomly divided into three different groups (10 animals in each group). Group A, control (Cont), without any injection group B, (sham) rats received solvent of nandrolone decanoate (peanut oil) and in group C, nandrolone decanoate was injected intramuscularly at a dose of 10 mg/kg per week for eight weeks. Results: Body weight changes were shown to be different significantly between control and experiment groups (P<0.0001). Prostates and seminal vesicles weight were significantly different between control and experiment groups (respectively, P<0.05 and P<0.001). Related right and left testes weight was significantly decreased in the experiment group compared to the control group (respectively, P<0.01 and P<0.05). Sperm quality markers were significantly different between control and experiment groups (P<0.0001). The number of normal germ cells in experiment group was decreased in compared with control group. Conclusion: This study concluded that nandrolone decanoate could decrease infertility rate in male system.