Effects of long term use of anti-aging hormone dehydroepiandrosterone on androgen dependent organs; prostate and testis in rats

ABSTRACTEFFECTS OF LONG TERM USE OF ANTI-AGING HORMONEDEHYDROEPIANDROSTERONE ON ANDROGEN DEPENDENTORGANS; PROSTATE AND TESTIS IN RATSPeople try to prevent the factors cause aging and the problems appear during thisprocess, to improve their quality of life, either behaviorally or medically, which iscalled anti-aging. Although they are commonly used and fairly popular, there is noenough data about the effects of the long term use of dehydroepiandrosterone anddehydroepiandrosteronesulphate. In this study, it is aimed to determine the effects oflong term use of DHEAS on rats? prostate and testis as well as serum testosterone andDHEAS levels.Thirty-seven Wistar Kyoto male rats, weighed 300-400 gr and aged 4-5 monthswere used in this study. The first group of 7 rats were in sham, 10 rats were in controland 20 were in the experimental group. Five mg/kg per day of DHEAS suspension perrat was orally given to 20 rats in the experimental group for 5 times a week, while salinewas given concurrently to the rats in the control group. At the end of the study, the ratswere sacrificed and their prostates and testes were removed. Intracardiac blood sampleswere drawn to determine their hormone levels and the histological samples wereevaluated under light microscopy.At the end of the 6 months of the study period, there was a statisticallysignificant difference in the of the mean atrophy scores between the control, sham andthe study groups. Mean atrophy scores were significantly lower in the study group(p<0.001 ve p<0.01). However, no significant differences were observed in stroma-gland ratio, papillary component, and hyperplasia scores between the three groups.There was also no difference in the structure of the testis. Serum total testosterone andDHEAS levels of the rats in the study group were significantly increased (p<0.001).In this study, it was determined that the long-term use of DHEAS does not haveany detrimental effects on prostate and testis, on the contrary it protects the prostatefrom atrophy, which is imperative for continuation of fertility and also increase theserum testosterone and DHEAS levels.Keywords: Prostate, testis, anti-aging, rat, DHEAS.vii