Background: Many people nowadays are suffering from mental or behavioral disorders. The Egyptian community is complaining from an increase in the appearance of mental disorders with a lot of treatment options. Increasing prevalence of psychiatric disorders is not limited to adults, but also appears in children and adolescents. The treatment of psychiatric disorders as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and autism usually involve the long-term taking of antipsychotic drugs. Therefore, the uses of antipsychotics have increased. Two main drugs are used quetiapine and aripiprazole. Aripiprazole has been used with satisfactory results. It is known to-act on the dopaminergic receptors which have been detected in the germinal cells.
Aim of work: To detect the histological changes induced by aripiprazole on the structure of the seminiferous tubules of albino rats and the possible recovery of the tubules after drug withdrawal.
Material and Methods: Twenty four prepubertal male albino rats were used in this study aged two weeks and weighed forty grams. The rats were divided into the following groups: Group (I): Control group: included twelve rats. Six rats were left without any medication throughout the experiment (group IA). The other six rats received 0.2 ml of 0.9% NaCl via oral gavage daily for 45 days (group IB). Group (II): Aripiprazole group: included twelve rats which received aripiprazole at a dose of 2 mg/kg B.W/day dissolved in 5 ml of 0.9% NaCl taken via oral gavage for 45 days. After this period (immediately after stoppage of drug administration), six of the rats in the group were sacrificed (group IIA). The other six were sacrificed after another 45 days (they were left without taking any drugs and considered group IIB i.e. a withdrawal period). After scarification, dissection of the testes was done. Specimens from both testes of all groups were taken and processed for light microscopic study.
Results: The testes of all groups showed that the seminiferous tubules lost their normal architecture pattern. Multiple vacuolations replaced the cellular elements. Focal depletions or generalized cellular loss occurred. The lumen was empty in most of the tubules. Irregularity of the basement membrane of the tubules was a common finding as well as congestion of the blood vessels and exudation in between the tubules. The withdrawal group of aripiprazole still showed damage of the seminiferous tubules.
Conclusion: The adverse effect of aripiprazole on the seminiferous tubules was evident and there was no significant improvement after withdrawal of the drug.