ABSTRACT
Chronic exposure to ethanol suppresses the male reproductive activity which is primarily involved in the release of hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). The testicular GnRH and GnRH receptors (GnRH-R) are found in seminiferous tubules, which are predicted to act as a local regulator of spermatogenesis, although the function is not well known. In this study, we investigated the chronic ethanol effect on GnRH mRNA expression in hypothalamus and testis using in situ hybridization and RNase protection assay (RPA). The effect of ethanol on expressional changes of GnRH and GnRH-R mRNA was observed in adult and pubertal rats according to age and time from 2 weeks (short term) and 4 weeks (long term) periods. The results showed that GnRH mRNA expression in adult and pubertal rats was dramatically decreased in the testis while no significant change was observed in hypothalamus after both short and long term exposure to ethanol. The pubertal rats showed decrease in testicular GnRH and GnRH-R mRNA expression, whereas GnRH mRNA was increased significantly, while GnRH-R mRNA was further decreased after long term exposure in adults. This study suggested that chronic ethanol administration is more effective to testicular GnRH and GnRH-R mRNA expression than hypothalamus and causes a negative effect on the spermatogenesis process. Furthermore, our finding suggests that the deteriorative effects of ethanol on gonadal activity are more lethal in puberty than adults.