The in vivo effect of gossypol on macromolecular synthesis in rat testis

An in vitro study showed that in rat testis gossypol acts as a nonspecific inhibitor of macromolecular synthesis. In this report we describe the in vivo effect of gossypol on DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis in rat testis. Gossypol treatment of rats (20 mg/kg) for 6, 10 and 16 weeks resulted in partial inhibition of macromolecular synthesis. When status of infertility is achieved after 6 weeks, macromolecular synthesis of the spermatogenetic epithelium is not essentially affected by gossypol. In contrast to the previously described DNA strand breaking induction of gossypol in human fibroblasts in vitro, no DNA strand breaking in testes of gossypol-treated rats was found as established by alkaline sucrose gradient centrifugation.