Paper Title
The Immunoreactivity Of Cytochrome P450 Aromatase In Testes Of Rats Whose Mothers Had Hypothyroidism

Abstract
Hypothyroidism is underproduction of thyroid hormones. The conversion of androgens to estrogens occurs by means of cytochrome P450 aromatase. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effect of maternal hypothyroidism on cytochrome P450 aromatase expression in offspring testes. With this purpose in mind, after PND 15 and 60 pups are categorized under 4 groups according to whether their mothers are with hypothyroidism or not, their cytochrome P450 aromatase expression level is analyzed by means of immunohistochemistry, their amount of aromatase mRNA is via RT-PCR and also the histological structure is evaluated. It has been observed that there is statistical increase in aromatase immunoreactivity of PND 15 pups whereas there is decrease in groups of PND 60 pups. RT-PCR analysis also demonstrates that aromatase mRNA level is found to be increased in groups of both PND 15 and 60 pups. It has also been recognized that while there is histologically no significant difference in PND 15 pups except from degenerate cells, there are degeneration, spermatids loss and tubular deterioration in germ cells of PND 60. As a result, it is concluded that maternal hypothyroidism adversely affect the testes and spermatogenesis by increasing aromatase expression in PND 15 pups together with decreasing it PND 60 pups. Keywords- Aromatase, Testes, Rat, PCR.