| Abstract: | Monthly semen samples of 28 fertile mentreated with 15-20 mg/day enteric-coated gossy-pol tablets, formic acid gossypol or acetic acidgossypol were examined by light microscope andelectron microscope until antifertility wasreached. Some cases were also studied ultra-histochemically for adenosine triphosphataseactivity. The controls were the subjects' ownsamples before treatment. By counting the morphologic changes of thespermatozoa, it was found that gossypol maycause marked 30% t0 69% increases in abnorma-lities l.5 months after the start of administration.Electron microscope showed that the heads ofaberrant spermatozoa often presented with largevacuoles with membranous structures in the nu-clei and the acrosomes of some cells were abnor-mal or even completely lacking. The middle-pieces had irregularly arranged mitochondriaand the cristae were decreased or even absentand the matrix became paler. The mitochondriawere vacuolated. Control ATPase positive reac-tions on the outer and inner mitochondrial mem-branes were in general stronger than in thegossypol treated and the vacuolated mitochond-ria always were negative. As the drug took effect, the spermatogeniccells, mainly spermatids, were markedly increas-ed t0 10-100% and some spermatids had 2 t0 4nuclei. Sertoli's cells were seen in the semen. In general, the higher the cell differentia-tion, the more gossypol sensitive it is. |
