Comparative study of chloroquine and quinine on malaria rodents and their effects on the mouse testis.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of quinine and chloroquine against male mice infected with Plasmodium berghei and their adverse effects on the mice testes. METHODS: In this study, 48 adult male mice, (20-25 g), aged 8 to 12 weeks were divided into four groups. This study was carried out from December 2009 until May 2010 in the School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. RESULTS: The results showed that 58.33% of mice treated with chloroquine were completely recovered. Parasitemia was 4% on day 8 when compared to that on day 0, whereas it was 9% on day 9. There was no orchitis found in this group. The mortality of mice after exposing to quinine on day 5 was 8.3%, whereas from day 10 to day 14 it was 91.7%. We found 75% orchitis occurred in quinine treated group. There was a significant difference between quinine and chloroquine effects on the parasite and also mice testes (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, It can be concluded that male mice have full resistance to the quinine. Quinine does not only make male mice recover completely, but also cause inflammation on mice testicles tissue.