The effects of long-term administration of buprenorphine on blood testosterone level and morphometrical and histopathological changes of mouse testis

Abstract

The objective of the present work was to investigate the effects of buprenorphine administration on testicular tissue in mice. Sexually mature male mice were randomly divided into five experimental groups (n = 5) and the following treatments were intraperitoneally administered for 21 days: Control male mice were given physiological saline. Positive control group was injected with morphine (Mor, 20 mg/kg). Three other groups were given different doses of buprenorphine including 0.15 mg/kg (B15), 0.30 mg/kg (B30), and 0.60 mg/kg (B60). Left testes were removed for histopathological evaluations and intracardiac blood samples were taken for testosterone assay. Morphometrically, the mean of seminiferous tubules diameter, spermatogonial cells diameter, sertoli cells diameter, and epithelial height were measured in the experimental groups. Meiotic index and the percentage of spermatogenesis were also calculated. The mean values of all of the above-mentioned parameters in the experimental groups showed significant decrease in comparison with the control group (p 0.05), and in this regard, B60 group showed the most (56.36%) and B15 the least (76.16%) decrease in the mean percentage of spermatogenesis. The results show that buprenorphine could suppress plasma testosterone, damage spermatogenesis, and affect male fertility. Therefore, it should be used with attention for the treatment of opioid dependence.