Endocrine Abstracts

Endocrine therapy in hormone sensitive cancers is on the increase and substances that reduce estrogen level and upregulate estrogen receptor can reduce activities of ovarian cancer. Clomiphene citrate (CC) is a selective estrogen receptor modulator. This study is aimed at investigating how different doses of CC affect estrogen level and level of alpha and beta estrogen receptors in the ovary of adult female rats. Fifty female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into 5 groups of 10 rats each. Group A (control) received sterile water. Groups B, C, D received 0.2 mg/kg, 2 mg/kg, 4 mg/kg of CC dissolved in distilled water at diestrus respectively. Group E was given 6 mg/kg of CC dissolved in distilled water daily via oral administration. Estrous cycle was monitored daily and the phases recorded. Serum analysis of estrogen level was done alongside the estrogen alpha (ERa) and estrogen receptor beta (ERb) levels after ovarian homogenization at different phases of the estrus cycle. In all the phases, CC caused a significant decrease (P<0.05) in estrogen level for groups D and E compared with control. Groups B and C showed significant (P<0.05) increase at metestrus. ERa did not change significantly (P>0.05) for groups B and C at proestrus and estrus phases but there is a dose-dependence changes at metestrus and diestrus in the treated groups (B, C, D, and E). Group B showed a significant decrease (P<0.05) in ERb across the phases compared with control. Meanwhile, ERb it significantly increased (P<0.05) in all the phases for Group E compared with control. Clomiphene citrate reduced the estrogen level and increase ERb at high dose. This shows that high doses of clomiphene could be useful as an adjunct in the management of ovarian cancer.