Count: 42 Abstract ID: 3904 subject: Addiction Biology Presentation Type: Poster THE EFFECT OF METHADONE ON THE EXPRESSION OF GENES INVOLVED IN SPERMATOGENESIS AND SPERM ANALYSIS IN MALE RATS Submission Author: Saeedeh Ghiasvand Saeedeh Ghiasvand1, hamid noriuon2 1. Assistant professor, Biology Department, Malayer university .Malayer, Iran 2. Msc degree, Isfahan university Background and Aim : The widespread usage of opioids all around the world has led researchers to conduct research on the clinical problems of drug addiction. Disruption of spermatogenesis due to drug addiction is one of the clinical problems. In this study, the effects of methadone abuse have been studied. Methods : In this study, four groups of male rats weighing 250 grams were used. The first group received high dose methadone, the second group received low dose of methadone, and the third group received normal saline for 30 days subcutaneously. The fourth group was considered as a negative control and did not receive any treatment. Finally, the rats were anesthetized with xylocaine and ketamine injections, and they were sacrificed from the caput, right testicular sperm was used for physiological studies. The left testis was used for genetic studies. The sperm motility was evaluated using an optical microscope. Eosin and nigrosine test was used to color sperm and to detect live viability. In order to determine the expression of TP53 and Catsper1 genes, the total cellular RNA was extracted and cDNA was synthesized, and then by RT-qPCR, the expression of these two genes was measured. Results : The first group showed a significant reduction in the expression of the gene, number, and survival of the sperm, in comparison with the positive and negative control groups. The second group shown less inferior to that of the first group, but there is a clear difference between the expression of the gene and hormones as well as the number and survival of the sperm in comparison with the negative and positive
