Effect of procarbazine treatment of mice on alpha-glycerolphosphate dehydrogenase activity and frequency of selected abnormalities in sperm.

The in situ activity of mitochondrial alpha-glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase (alpha-GPD) as well as 2 specific sperm abnormalities [headless and disorganization of the mitochondria assembly (PL-type)] have been studied in sperm from mice treated with single doses of procarbazine (100, 200, 400, 600 and 800 mg/kg) at intervals up to 55 days after treatment. The frequency of sperm without active alpha-GPD and the frequency of the morphology variants increased with increasing dose of procarbazine. The variance in the level of alpha-GPD among sperm with active enzyme and the variance between animals also increased with increasing dose. The lowest effective dose was 200 mg/kg and there were no observable effects 85 days after treatment.