Study of ovarian Histological changes after Ethanol consumption

Destructive effects of ethanol consumption on several organs of the body have been studied. Nevertheless experimental research has not been done on ovary in this field. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of ethanol on light microscopic structure of mouse's ovaries. Forty female, BALB/c strain, weighing 30-35 grams mice were selected and divided in two equal experimental and control groups randomly. In experimental groups, mice were injected intraperitoneally 1mg ethanol per each gram body weight every day. In Control groupe, mice were injected 1mg normal saline per each gram body parallel to experimental group as a placebo. After one-month injection, One-half of mice and after two months injection, another half of mice, in both control and experimental groups, were anesthetized and sacrificed. Ovaries were removed and washed in normal saline. Then they were placed in fixative (formalin) for 48 hours. After routine histological processing and embedding in paraffin, all the specimens were cut in to 10μm thickness sections and stained by Hematoxylin-Eosin. Then specimens were observed by light microscopy and photographed. In experimental group, female mice that had received ethanol for one month, diminished follicles in the cortex and increased fibroblasts in the medulla. Mice that had received ethanol for two months showed massive fibrotic tissues both in cortex and medulla without any follicles in the cortex. No abnormal changes were observed in control groups that were injected normal saline for one and two months. According to our results, we suggest that injection of ethanol has the progressive destructive effects on cortex and medulla of ovaries and these changes depend on duration and amount of ethanol administration.