A Study on Effect of High Dose Testosterone Enanthate on the Histological Changes of Cardiac Muscle in Adult Male Rats.

Testosterone enanthate (TE), due to its anabolic effects, is widely used by youths and athletes as a stimulating drug on the increasing weight and muscle strength. Previous studies showed that the high doses of TE may have some effects on the various tissues, especially on heart muscle. The aim of this study to evaluate the effects of high doses of TE on the histological changes of cardiac muscle, creatine-kinase (CK-BM)enzyme and glycogen storage of heart muscle in rats. For this purpose, 120 male Charles River rats were divided to five groups: group I was used as control non-treated group, in group II rats were gonadectomized and received TE (5mg/100g of BW as I.P. injection), in Group III rats were gonadectomized and receiving vehicle (olive oil). Group IV were sham-operated non gonadectomized rats receiving the same does of TE as group I, group V were sham–operated non gonadectomized rats receiving vehicle. In each group, blood samples were taken after 60 days and the left ventricles of the cardiac muscle were removed and prepared for histological and histochemical studies. The serum levels testosterone and CK-MB enzyme measured by ELIZA technique. This research shows that myocardial cells and nuclei diameter, density of glycogen in cardiac cells and CK-MB enzyme were increase in rats that received (TE) significantly (p<0.05) and p<.0001 (for hormone and enzyme measurements). This research shows that use of TE as high doses can be very dangerous in youths and athletes because increasing of CK-MB and glycogen storage are signs of infarcts and storage glycogen diseases respectively.