Effects of simvastatin 20mg on the histology of albino rat ovary

Background: simvastatin is an effective hypocholesterolemic drug that inhibits cholesterol synthesis selectively in the liver but at the same time could have potential side effects on the adrenal glands,ovary and testis as these three glands use cholesterol for their hormonal biosynthesis. design: in this study 30 female albino rats were taken and randomly divided into three groups a,and b. group a was designated as the control group whereas group b was the experimental group in which simvastatin was given in dosage of 20mg a total of 42 days. results: in the cortex the number of primordial follicles were decreased in the experimental group b (pvalue <0.001),whereas,the secondary follicles showed a decrease in diameter in the same group. in the same way the graafian follicles also showed a decrease in diameter which was 839μm in group a and 750μm group b. the corpus luteum showed an increased in size in the experimental group b. congestion and dilatation was seen in group b. the lipid profile showed a decrease of more than 50% of total cholesterol and triglycerides in both the experimental groups (p-value <0.001). however ldl was decreased by approximately 40% but hdl was increased by 10%. conclusion: this drug as a hypocholesterolemic agent (statin) decreased the total serum cholesterol,triglycerides and ldl but it seems has an adverse effect on the morphology and histology of ovaries even when given for a short time in a dose of 20mg/ day.