Preventive Effects of Growth Hormone on Degeneration of Rabbit Ovarian Follicles During Cyclophosphamide Induced Toxicity

Background and Cyclophosphamide (CP), an antineoplastic drug, is also widely used in treatment of a variety of diseases such as lymphomas, leukemia, neuroblastoma, ovarian carcinoma, breast cancer and auto-immune diseases. However, its use has toxic effects on different tissues of the body, for example, it causes involution and degeneration of ovarian follicles and toxicity in the ovaries. In contrast, growth hormone (GH) improves the function of most body tissues and research has shown that it leads to the increase in the number and size of the ovarian follicles. The purpose of this study was to study the preventive effects of growth hormone during cyclophposphamide induced toxicity on the ovarian follicles. In this study, 30 New Zealand white rabbits were divided into three groups containing 10 animals in each. Group 1 was the control group and only received placebo. Groups 2 and 3 were administrated 100 mg/kg body weight CP orally daily. Group 3 was also administered growth hormone 0/15 mg/Kg subcutaneously for 49 days (from 7 days before initiation of CP therapy to 14 days after the last administration of CP).The day after last administration of CP, all 30 rabbits were anesthetized by ether and ovariectomized and the number of different types of developing follicles, regressive follicles and degenerations in ovarian tissue was studied. Degeneration of follicles was observed in both groups 2 and 3, but the number of degenerated follicles in group two was more than that in group 3 which had received GH. The number of degenerated areas in ovarian tissue in group 2 was also higher than that in the other two groups. The difference between body weight and the weight of the ovaries in groups 1 and 3 was not significant, but there was a significant decrease in body weight and ovarian weight in group 2 compared with the other two groups. These results suggest that co-administration of GH can improve the function of ovary and preserve the ovary and follicles from CP induced toxicity.