Dissertation Patrícia Matias Carvalho e Silva

AUTHOR: Patrícia Matias Carvalho e Silva

TITLE: Evaluation of the effects of pequi oil on male and female prostate of senile gerbils exposed to Ethinylestradiol during the prenatal period

ADVISOR: Profª Drª Ana Paula da Silva Perez

DEFENSE DATE: 05/26/2021

ABSTRACT

The prostate is the largest accessory gland of the male reproductive system, located lower than the bladder and presents alveolar tubule glandular tissue. This gland plays an importante role in the reproductive process, however, it is not exclusive to males. The female prostate, also known as Skene gland, can be found in rodents, such as the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) and humans. Disorders of the prostate gland can affect both males and females, which can lead to the development of neoplasms. Studies with gerbils show that exposure to ethinylestradiol (EE2), an important component of oral contraceptives, during the prenatal period promotes lesions in the male and female prostate, favoring the appearance of prostatic intraepithelial neoplasms in the adult and senile phases. On the other hand, pequi, a fruit from the Brazilian cerrado that has several phytotherapic properties, has been studied as a way of preventing various chronic diseases associated with age. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of exposure to pequi oil on the male and female prostate of senile gerbils both under normal physiological conditions and under exposure to ethinyl estradiol during the prenatal period. For the experiment, the animals were divided into 05 groups. In the EE group, pregnant females received 15μg/kg/day of 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) diluted in mineral oil from the 18th to the 22nd day of gestation by gavage. In the EE/Ve group, pregnant females received only 1 ml/day of mineral oil by gavage during the same period of gestation. Group EE/Pe, pregnant females also received gavage 300mg/kg/day of pequi oil from the 18th until the date of birth of the offspring. Group Pe, pregnant females received 1 ml / day of pequi oil by gavage, in the same period of the previous group. In the control group, females were not treated. For data analysis, male and female puppies in the groups were euthanized when they were 12 months old. Then, the animals were weighed, as well as the prostatic, dorsal, dorsolateral (D/DL) and ventral male and prostate complexes, and the female prostate. The ventral and female prostates were submitted to histological processing. At the moment, only the glands of the control and EE groups were stained in Hematoxylin and Eosin for morphological and morphometric analyzes. From the results it was observed that the body weight of the senile male gerbils of the Pe group was significantly lower, when compared to the EE/Ve group. The weight of the prostatic complex of males in the Pe group was significantly lower compared to the EE group. The weight of the D/DL prostate was higher when compared to the EE/Pe and EE groups. The weight of the female prostate was higher in the Pe group, compared to the EE group. The female prostate and the ventral prostate of gerbils males exposed to EE2 during the prenatal period development prostatic intraepithelial neoplasms. The epithelial height decreased and the thickness of the prostate muscle layer increased in the EE/Pe and Pe groups when compared to the control and EE groups. In the glandular tissue of males in the EE group, the presence of benign prostatic hyperplasia was also observed. In addition to the presence of infamatory infiltrate with plenty of defense cells. Biometric analyzes showed that early exposure to pequi oil acts in diferente ways on the prostates of both sexes during aging. The reduction in epithelial height may be one of the effects of pequi oil in softening the hypercellularity action promoted by synthetic estrogen. However, other studies must be carried out to elucidate the action of oil from this fruit from the cerrado.

Keywords: aging, ethinylestradiol, pequi, prostate