Endocrinology, Vol 129, 2647-2654, Copyright © 1991 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

Cyclosporin-mediated depression of luteinizing hormone receptors and heme biosynthesis in rat testes: a possible mechanism for decrease in serum testosterone

BA Krueger, GM Trakshel, PM Sluss and MD Maines
Department of Biophysics, University of Rochester School of Medicine, New York 14642.

The toxic side-effects of the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin (CsA) include testicular dysfunction and a decline in circulating testosterone. However, mechanisms for the consistently observed CsA- mediated depression of serum testosterone levels are unclear because of conflicting reports concerning circulating gonadotropin levels and incomplete studies of intratesticular steroidogenesis. To elucidate these mechanisms, endocrine-regulated testicular steroidogenesis and heme metabolic parameters were studied in male rats given sc injections of either 25 or 40 mg/kg.day CsA for 6 days and then killed on the seventh day. Consistent with earlier reports, CsA treatment dramatically suppressed serum testosterone levels (less than 20% of control at both CsA doses). Additionally, the intratesticular testosterone content declined with the higher CsA dose. Serum LH and FSH levels were elevated up to 2- to 4-fold after the higher CsA treatment regimen. Measurement of decreases in testicular receptors for LH revealed for the first time that CsA treatment significantly reduced the ability of the testes to respond to normal or elevated circulating levels of LH. In animals receiving higher dose of the drug, cytochrome P-450-dependent mitochondrial cholesterol side-chain cleavage activity, which is the rate-limiting step in steroidogenesis, was markedly reduced to a mere 30% of the control value. Additionally, the activity of the microsomal cytochrome P-450-dependent 17 alpha-hydroxylase was decreased to less than half of the control value. Biotransformation of the prototype drug, benzo(a)pyrene, as well as microsomal cytochrome P450 levels declined significantly after the higher CsA dose, suggesting that CsA has an adverse affect on testicular cytochromes P- 450 in general. In addition, CsA treatment altered heme metabolic parameters; significant increases in the activity of uroporphyrinogen-I synthetase and total porphyrin content were noted. Conversely, the activity of ferrochelatase, the enzyme that incorporates iron into porphyrin to form heme molecule, decreased significantly, as did the total heme levels. The latter was reduced to only 61% of control values. The findings suggest the likelihood that the observed inhibition of heme formation may contribute substantially to the reduced levels of microsomal cytochromes P-450 and steroidogenic activities that depend on them. Taken collectively, these data suggest a plausible mechanism by which CsA may induce testicular dysfunction; as the result of a combination of reduction in the number of LH receptors and a suppression of heme formation, the hemoprotein- dependent steroidogenic enzymes activities are compromised, leading to an impairment of normal testicular function.