AAS AND ORGANS DAMAGE: A FOCUS ON NANDROLONE EFFECTS

GIUSEPPE DAVIDE ALBANO¹, FRANCESCO SESSA¹, ANTONIETTA MESSINA², VINCENZO MONDA², GIUSEPPE BERTOZZI¹, FRANCESCA MAGLIETTA¹, PASQUALE GIUGLIANO³, GIUSEPPE VACCHIANO⁴, MARSALA GABRIELLA⁵, MONICA SALERNO¹

¹Section of Forensic Pathology, Clinical and Experimental Medicine Department, University of Foggia, Ospedale Colonnello D’Avanzo, Viale Degli Aviatori ¹, Foggia, Italy - ²Department of Experimental Medicine, Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy - ³U.O.C., Legal Medicine, Sant’Anna and San Sebastiano Hospital, Palasciano Street, Caserta (Italy) - ⁴U.O.C., Department of Law, Economics and Mathematical Methods, Sannio University, Benevento (Italy) - ⁵Struttura Complessa di Farmacia, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Ospedali Riuniti di Foggia, Italy

AAS are being used widespread in order to improve athlete’s performance, due to its capacity to improve muscle mass and strength, furthermore, recent studies showed a diffuse abuse by adolescents for libido reasons and appearance. Nandrolone is one of the most abused AAS in the world, it has a similar structure and chemical characteristic compared to testosterone. It interacts with different receptors in our body, such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, that’s why Nandrolone side effects affect the whole human body. Differents proteins and genes are involved in testosterone biosynthesis of testosterone, with different regulatory pathways. In this review we focused on nandrolone related male reproductive system damage, in order to show the heavy consequen- ces of AAS abuse. Nandrolone regulates MMP-2 and it could lead to spermatogenesis impairment. Oxidative stress and increase of Ros production could play a leading role in Nandrolone related infertility. Different oncogenic pathways are activated by Nandrolone and more studies need to be done to clear up correlations between this molecule and cancer. Leydig cell testosterone production is influenced by Nandrolone, moreover it was demonstrated to be a dose-dipendent mechanism, despite multiple proteins and genes involved in this process were discovered, other regulatory proteins, genes and pathways, need to be studied in deep.