Elida Mitevska

Institute of Medical and Experimental Histology and Embryology, Medical Faculty, University “Ss Cyril and Methodius”, 50 Divizija 16, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

Aim: The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of the synthetic progestin medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) on the morphological characteristics of the thymus.

Material and Methods: A total of 24 female Wistar rats were divided into two groups. The control group received saline, and the second group was administered medroxyprogesterone acetate in the therapeutic dose of 30 mg/kg bw. The substances were applied daily, intramuscularly for a period of 7 days. Paraffin sections of thymus were dyed with the following methods: hematoxylin - eosin and elastica Van Gieson.

Results: Histological analysis of the samples obtained after the application of MPA, showed a reduction in the thymic parenchyma and increasing of the stroma. Stereological analysis and statistical data processing (Student t-test) showed that the volume density (% per mm3 tissue) of thymic parenchyma was 89.94 ± 0.85% (average value ± standard deviation) in the control group of rats, while significantly decreased to 18.07 ± 2.20% in the group of rats treated with MPA (p <0.01). It was due to significant reduction of the cortex (from 71.37 ± 1.33% to 11.81 ± 1.31%, p <0.01) and significant reduction of the medulla (from 18.56 ± 1.07% to 6.23 ± 0.93%, p <0.01). To account thymic parenchyma, intense presence of increased stroma and its bulk density of 10.06 ± 0.85% in control group of rats significantly increased to 81.93 ± 2.20% after the treatment with MPA.

Conclusion: The results showed that major morphological characteristic of the thymus is the atrophy of its parenchyma after the application of medroxyprogesterone acetate.

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Citation: Mitevska E. Histological Characteristics of Thymus Assessed with Stereological Parameters after Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Application. Maced J Med Sci. 2011 Dec 15; 4(4):367-371. http://dx.doi.org/10.3889/MJMS.1957-5773.2011.0197.
Key words: medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA); thymus; histology; stereology; Wistar rats.
Correspondence: Dr. Elida Mitevska, MD, PhD. Institute of Medical and Experimental Histology and Embriology, Faculty of Medicine, University "Ss Cyril and Methodius", 50 Divizija No 16, Skopje 1109, Republic of Macedonia. E-Mail: elida_mitevska@yahoo.com
Received: 27-Sep-2011; Revised: 24-Oct-2011; Accepted: 26-Oct-2011; Online first: 07-Nov-2011
Copyright: © 2011 Mitevska E. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Competing Interests: The author have declared that no competing interests exist.

 

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- Mitevska E