The Effect of Metformin and Anastrozole on the Induced Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in Rat. Morphological, Morphometric, and Histological Study

Abstract

Background:

Polycystic ovarian syndrome is one of an important gynecologic disorder that attracts the attention of many scientists about its etiology, diagnosis and treatment.

It is characterized by enlargement of the ovary, many macroscopic and microscopic changes, with disturbance of menstruation and infertility.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a multifactorial disorder of unclear etiology. Its diagnosis depends on many criteria.

Many lines of treatment are used which give different responses.

Aim of study:

Follow up the treatment of polycystic ovarian syndrome with metformin and anastrozole through morphological, morphometric and histological studies.

Materials and methods:

Twenty-one day old female rats had been involved in this study. Forth of them received nothing and considered as a control group while the remaining received testosterone to induce polycystic ovarian syndrome. The animals with polycystic ovary had been divided into three subgroups; the first one received nothing, while the second one treated with metformin and the last subgroup received anastrozole as a therapy.

The morphological, morphometric and histological studies of each subgroups had been demonstrated and comparison between the results obtained of metformin and anastrozole treated subgroups had been analyzed.

Result:

The result collected from metformin treated subgroup revealed response to treatment, however, this response was inferior to the response of this syndrome to anastrozole. This was observed according to the morphological, morphometric and histological studies.

Discussion:

Metformin reduces insulin level in the blood which acts directly or systemically on the ovarian tissue to reduce androgen production, which in turn, improves the physiological cycle of sexual hormones. However, this improvement (reflected by macroscopic and microscopic results) did not approximate the normal value as anastrozole did. Anastrozole acts as aromatase enzyme inhibitor, therefore, inhibits aromatization of androgen into estrogen. This returned the hormonal cycle to almost normal status.