The effect of a synthetic progestine on the fine structure of rat prostate (ultrastructural-morphometric analysis)

Abstract

The alterations induced in the glandular cells of the ventral lobe of rat prostate by administration of a synthetic progestine (norethandrolone) were studied by electron microscopy. The ultrastructure of the treated cells was compared descriptively and quantitatively by stereologic methods with that of normal cells. A total of three male, sex mature rats was administered norethandrolone (17 ethyl-19-nortestosterone) in a low dose of 180 μg per day and was studied with three control animals. The stereologic methods, devised by Weibel (1969) and Rohr et al. (1975) were applied to light and electron micrographs from three treated and three control animals. In the treated animals there was, related to the unit volume of prostatic tissue, a significant decrease in the volume fraction of the acinar parenchyma, the glandular cell and its various compartments, involved in protein and enzyme synthesis. The fine structure of the ventral prostatic lobe after administration of a low dose of progestine is not similar to that found by Brandes (1966) and Helminen and Ericsson (1972) after castration or administration of a high dose of estrogen. Our microscopic findings as well as the morphometric data (values related to the unit volume of cytoplasm) support the assumption, that the fine structural integrity of the glandular cell is not affected. In attempting a relation between quantitative morphological and biochemical data, the known biochemical data of testosterone metabolism and the interference of progestines with it are discussed with the ultrastructural morphometric data.