The Effect of Cyproterone Acetate on Myo‐Inositol Uptake and Secretion in the Reproductive Tract of the Male Rat

Abstract

A procedure is described for evaluating the uptake of myo‐inositol by measuring the radioactivity (dpm/mg wet weight of tissue) in the male reproductive accessory glands after injection of (2‐3H)myo‐inositol into bilaterally nephrectomized rats. The rate of secretion of the labelled inositol was assessed by measuring the total dpm in fluids expressed from the seminal vesicles and coagulating glands after injection of the tritiated inositol. Cyproterone acetate treatment (15 mg/day), for 2 to 7 days, inhibited secretion of radioactive inositol by the seminal vesicles and decreased the uptake capacity to a greater extent than it inhibited the rate of inositol accumulation into these glands. It had a similar effect on the coagulating glands after 7 days of treatment. The prostate was the least affected by the cyproterone acetate treatment.

Epididymal Functions and their Hormonal Regulation

“…Some inositol enters the epididymis by way of the rete testis fluid (Tuck et al 1970;. Additional inositol may arise by transport from the bloodstream (Lewin et al 1979;Cooper 1982) and by direct epididymal synthesis (Robinson and Fritz 1979;Hasegawa and Eisenberg 1981).…”