Morphological and biochemical effects of lonidamine on cultured Sertoli cells.

Lonidamine, an antispermatogenic compound derivative of indazole-3-carboxylic acid, administered to rat Sertoli cells induced morphological changes of the cells which rapidly shrinked forming cytoplasmic projections. Some biochemical parameters of Sertoli cells measured after drug administration were their aromatizing ability, protein synthesis, and ribonucleic acid synthesis. The amount of estradiol produced by treated cells was significantly lower than the amount produced by control cells, whereas protein and ribonucleic acid synthesis were not affected by the drug. Our results demonstrate the change of a specific metabolic parameter of Sertoli cells induced by this antispermatogenic compound.