Effects of varying doses of conjugated estrogen on body weight, hormonal and histological alterations of reproductive organs in adult swiss albino female mice

Abstract

Estrogens are a group of hormones that have diverse effects on both reproductive and non-reproductive organs. Conjugated estrogens are medicine that contains a mixture of estrogen hormones. The study was conducted to observe the effects of varying doses of conjugated estrogen on body weight, hormonal and histological alterations of reproductive organs in adult swiss albino female mice. In this study, 60 female swiss albino mice (Mus musculus) aged 28–30 days with an average body weight of 28.2 ± 1 g were used. At first, the mice were randomly divided into 4 groups each containing 15 mice. Group A was served as vehicle control and fed on standard mice pellet and fresh drinking water. While, groups B, C and D were administered with conjugated estrogen orally at the daily dose rate of 125 μg, 250 μg and 500 μg/kg body weight respectively with 1 mL sesame oil as a vehicle by mixing with feed. The experiment was carried out for 90 days. After humanly euthanized, blood was collected and serum was prepared and organs were collected for histopathology. The results revealed that higher doses of conjugated estrogen resulted in weight loss in premenopausal female mice compared to lower doses. Serum estrogen and thyroxine concentration was increased significantly following the doses of conjugated estrogen. Ovarian histotexture showed congested blood vessels and cystic space with degeneration of follicles and corpus luteum. Uterine lesions included massive macrophage infiltration in endometrium and hyperplasia of glandular epithelium at a lower dose; hyperplasia and hypertrophy of glandular epithelium (pleomorphism) with normal macrophage infiltration in endometrium at a higher dose. Therefore, it can be concluded that oral conjugated estrogen therapy at high dose has more detrimental impacts on body weight and reproductive function compared to lower dose in female adult mice.