Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: Hypogonadism is associated with a higher risk of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, but the mechanisms underlying this association are not yet fully understood. Increased oxidative stress has been associated with development of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. We aimed to determine serum PON1 activities, an established lipid antioxidant, MDA levels which are end products of lipid peroxidation induced by ROS and thiol groups as an antioxidant for evaluating oxidative stress in patients with hypogonadism before and after replacement therapy.

Design and methods: A total of 18 male patients with untreated idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (mean age: 27.4±7.3 years) and age, sex, and weight matched eugonadal healthy subjects (mean age: 32.6±7.2 years) were enrolled in the study as a control group. Serum PON1 activity, MDA and thiol levels were measured according to an enzymatic spectrophotometric method.

Results: Serum MDA and thiol levels were higher and PON1 activity was lower in patients with hypogonadism than the controls before the treatment. Similarly the serum MDA and thiol levels was higher and PON1 activity lower in patients with hypogonadism after treatment than the controls. However, no differences were observed between before treatment levels and after treatment levels.

Conclusions: We conclude that increased lipid oxidation and resultant decreased PON1 activity may occur in patients with hypogonadism and that thiol levels increase to protect these patients from oxidative stress. Since increased oxidative stress may be related to atherosclerosis, further treatment protocols should possibly be adjusted in the light of these findings.