The use of melatonin as a fertoprotective agent during chemotherapy

OUBIÑA G; MAY M; MATZKIN ME; SCOTTI L; FRUNGIERI MB; PARBORELL F; PASCUALI N; HERRERO Y; ABRAMOVICH D

Santiago de Chile

Congreso; XXVII Reunión Bienal Asociación Latinoamericana de Investigadores en Reproducción Humana (ALIRH); 2021

ALIRH

Melatonin (MEL) is a neurohormone with a potent antioxidant activity. Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a pathology defined as the depletion of the ovarian reserve; one of its causes is chemotherapy. Current treatments for POF have proven to be ineffective or prohibitively expensive. Our objective is to assess whether MEL can protect ovaries from chemotherapy-induced gonadotoxicity using a mice model of POF induced by cyclophosphamide (CTX). To induce POF, CTX was administered (75 mg/kg, i.p.) to F1 mice (C57XBalbC, 6-8 weeks old) on day 1. CTX+MEL group also received MEL (15 mg/kg, i.p.) on days 1, 6 and 11. Animals were sacrificed on day 15 and their ovaries processed for histological analysis and Western Blot. Data was analyzed by ANOVA followed by Tukey?s test. The results showed that CTX increased the number of primary and atretic follicles while reducing the number of antral follicles compared to control (p