[Effects of anti-cancer agents on cultured rat Sertoli cells]

We performed primary immature Sertoli cell culture to investigate whether or not anti-cancer agents would have a direct effect on rat Sertoli cells. Sertoli cells, isolated from testes of 18-day-old rats, were cultured in pellets with medium for 5 days. The concentration of transferrin in cultured medium were measured as the function of Sertoli cells. The anti-cancer agents cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (CDDP), adriamycin and vinblastine were selected for this study, and added to the culture medium. CDDP decreased the level of transferrin concentration in cultured medium, namely 0.5 microgram/ml of CDDP resulted in 54.9% of the transferrin concentration in the medium compared with that without any anti-cancer agents (p < 0.05), and 1.0 micrograms/ml of CDDP produced transferrin concentrations of 57.5% and 46.2% (p < 0.05), respectively. Adriamycin (0.4 microgram/ml) and vinblastine (0.5 microgram/ml) produced transferrin concentrations of 35.2% and 31.3% in cultured medium (p < 0.05), respectively. These findings revealed that anti-cancer agents have direct damaging effects on rat Sertoli cells.