Physiological changes in androgen plasma levels with elapsing of time from castration in adult male rats.

In the present study we investigated in adult male rats the effects of castration on Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), Androstenedione (delta 4), Testosterone (T) and Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) plasma levels: five days (group II), seven weeks (group III) and eleven weeks (group IV) after orchiectomy. The same hormone assays were performed in rats approximately 60 days of age which underwent a sham-operation for orchiectomy (group I). Our data show that five days following orchiectomy (group II) delta 4, T and DHT were decreased with respect to sham-operated rats. (Group I: delta 4: 83.3 +/- 14.9 (SEM) ng/dl (n = 12); T: 435.32 +/- 51.45 (n = 12); DHT: 51.47 +/- 6.54 (n = 12); Group II: delta 4: 44.81 +/- 6.09 (n = 12) P = 0.05; T: 25.54 +/- 2.88 (n = 12) P less than 0.01; DHT: 12.9 +/- 2.51 (n = 12) P less than 0.01). Seven weeks afterwards T and DHT remained significantly lower (group III: T: 54.37 +/- 12.21, n = 16) (P less than 0.01; DHT: 33.22 +/- 4.49 (n = 16) P less than 0.01) while eleven weeks after all steroids were significantly decreased with respect to the values observed in sham-operated rats. (Group IV) delta 4: 32.01 +/- 5.7 (n = 10) P less than 0.01: T: 27.29 +/- 7.05 (n = 10) P less than 0.01; DHT: 29.03: 5.34 (n = 10) P less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)