Chronic morphine exerts deleterious effects on testicular function through either suppression of germ cells or somatic including Sertoli cells, probably through the activation of inflammatory, oxidative, and apoptosis biomarkers. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether the damaging effects of morphine dependence were reversed by the spontaneous morphine withdrawal or incubation with methadone and/or naloxone in Sertoli (TM4) cells using an in- vitro cell model of morphine dependence. Morphine dependence in TM4 cells was induced by increasing daily doses of morphine for 10 days and then maintained for two weeks in 5 μM. The cAMP levels were measured for an evaluation of morphine dependence. The cell viability and inflammatory, oxidative, apoptosis biomarkers, and glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) were measured after the end of treatment following the incubation of cells with methadone and naloxone and spontaneous withdrawal from morphine. We found that morphine dependence decreased cell viability, GDNF level and increased the levels of pro-oxidant, pro-inflammatory, and apoptotic biomarkers in TM4 cells, while spontaneous withdrawal from morphine and by naloxone decreased the levels of the biomarkers of pro-inflammatory and apoptotic in TM4 cells. Also, despite the low levels of pro-inflammatory factors following morphine withdrawal by methadone, it increased the cleaved/pro-caspase3 ratio in TM4 cells. This study showed that morphine dependence increased apoptosis probably via oxidative stress and inflammation pathways in TM4 cells. Also, it seems likely that spontaneous and naloxone withdrawal have beneficial consequences in the treatment of morphine dependence than methadone therapy, although they may require longer incubation periods.
Keywords: Apoptosis; GDNF; Inflammation; Methadone; Morphine dependence; Naloxone; Oxidative stress; Sertoli cell line (TM4).
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