The present study was aimed to examine if multiple oral administration of citalopram, an antidepressant drug, has any genotoxic potential on germ cells of male mice. Mice were treated with citalopram for 4 or 8 weeks at the doses of 6, 12 and 24 mg/kg/day and were sacrificed 24 h after the last dose. Multiple exposures to 12 and 24 mg/kg/day citalopram significantly increased sperm DNA strand breaks (14.0 and 16.0, respectively, compared to the concurrent control of 6.8 at week 4 and 15.2 and 20.7, respectively, compared to the concurrent control of 7.2 at week 8) and aberrant primary spermatocytes (6.6% and 7.6%, respectively, compared to the control of 2.8% at week 4 and 7.4% and 8.4%, respectively, compared to the control of 3.2% at week 8) as well as oxidative DNA damage (2.7 and 3.1, respectively, compared to the control of 1.6 at week 4 and 3.3 and 3.9, respectively, compared to the control of 1.7 at week 8). Overall, this study provides that citalopram at the recommended human doses after long-term treatment is genotoxic for mouse germ cells. Thus, male patients receiving citalopram may stand at higher risk for abnormal reproductive outcomes, particularly in the reproductive ages.
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