Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on February 27, 2004
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Human Reproduction, Vol. 19, No. 4, 859-866,
April 2004
© 2004 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Transient hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism in males with acute toxoplasmosis: suppressive effect of interleukin-1
on the secretion of GnRH
Departments of 1 Internal Medicine, 2 Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, 3 Biochemistry, 4 Immunology and 5 Biostatistics, Gulhane Military Medical Academy, TR-06018 Etlik-Ankara, Turkey
6 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Internal Medicine, Gulhane Military Medical Academy, TR-06018 Etlik-Ankara, Turkey. e-mail: coktenli{at}gata.edu.tr or coktenli{at}ttnet.net.tr
BACKGROUND: In September 2002, an outbreak of toxoplasmosis was noted in a male boarding high school on the Aegean coast of Turkey. We have focused our efforts to investigate the sex hormones in this population. METHODS: Blood samples were collected from 40 male patients, 1718 years old, who also had positive titres of antibody to Toxoplasma gondii. Serum FSH, LH, free testosterone (FT), total testosterone (TT), interferon-
(IFN-
), interleukin-1
(IL-1
) and macrophage-inflammatory protein-1
(MIP-1
) concentrations were measured in all patients and 20 control subjects. Initially, the patients were divided on the basis of the levels of sex hormones into the following groups: patients who had normal sex hormone levels (n = 31) as group A and patients with low sex hormone levels (n = 9) as group B. RESULTS: IL-1
levels were found to be higher in group B patients than group A. The levels of IL-1
correlated significantly in a negative manner with FSH, LH, FT and TT in all patients with acute toxoplasmosis (n = 40). CONCLUSIONS: Acute toxoplasma infection may cause temporary hypogonadotrophic gonadal insufficiency regardless of the course of the disease.
Key words:
hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism/interferon-
/interleukin-1
/macrophage-inflammatory protein-1
/toxoplasmosis