Prolactin and leutinizing hormone serum levels in albino rats after intraperitoneal administration of khat extract

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted on normal adult albino rats of both sexes. Their body weight ranged between 200 and 250 gm and the experimental animals received 0.2 ml khat extract by intraperitoneal injection for 5 successive days. In the control male group the mean prolactin serum level was 4.8 +/- 0.95 ng/ml and was significantly increased to 11.76 +/- 2.9 ng/ml in the experimental group. In the control pregnant and non-pregnant female groups the mean prolactin serum levels were 85.66 +/- 16.48 ng/ml and 8.83 +/- 2.1 ng/mI respectively and were significantly increased to 167.21 +/- 29.31 ng/mI and to 17.93 +/- 5.97 ng/ml in the corresponding experimental groups. In the control male group the mean Leutinizing hormone [LH] serum level was 2.15 +/- 0.88 micro IU/ml and was signigficantly increased to 4.28 +/- 1.44 micro lU/mI in the experimental group. In the control pregnant and non-pregnant female groups the mean LH serum levels were 30.03 +/- 6.12 micro lU/ml and 4.11 +/- 1.5 micro lU/mI respectively and were significantly increased to 67.56 +/- 8.24 micro IU/ml and 11.06 +/- 2.59 micro lU/ml in the corresponding experimental groups. The results were discussed