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Fertility and histological studies of the contralateral testes in two different intra‐ and extra‐abdominal rat models of unilateral cryptorchidism
Author(s) -
Zakaria,
Shono,
Imajima,
Suita
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
british journal of urology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1464-410X
pISSN - 0007-1331
DOI - 10.1046/j.1464-410x.1998.00799.x
Subject(s) - medicine , offspring , fertility , abdomen , pregnancy , andrology , urology , surgery , biology , population , genetics , environmental health
Objective To investigate the effect of location of the testis on both testicular development and fertility in unilateral cryptorchidism. Material and methods Forty‐nine Wistar King A newborn male rats were divided into three groups. In group 1 (15 rats) intra‐abdominal unilateral cryptorchidism were created by the intra‐abdominal fixation of the testis in the neonatal period. In group 2 (16 rats) extra‐abdominal unilateral cryptorchidism was created by extra‐abdominal fixation of the gubernaculum in the neonatal period. In group 3, 18 rats underwent a sham operation as controls. At 90 days of age, fertility was then assessed in each rat by housing it with two mature virgin females for 2 weeks. Thereafter, at 115–120 days of age, the rats were killed and their testes removed for histological examination. Results There was no significant difference in the pregnancy rate between females coupled with rats from any group, but the mean number of offspring was significantly lower in females coupled with rats in group 1 than in group 2. Furthermore, histological examination of both the cryptorchid and contralateral scrotal testes showed more severe changes in the intra‐abdominal than the extra‐abdominal testes. Conclusion These results suggest that intra‐abdominal cryptorchid testes are significantly more impaired than extra‐abdominal cryptorchid testes, and that such impairment might be caused by exposure of the testis to a higher temperature. The more severely impaired undescended testes may thus induce the degeneration of the contralateral scrotal testis and thereby cause subfertility in the intra‐abdominal unilateral cryptorchid rat model.