Experimental Study on the Effect of Unilateral Cryptorchidism on the Contralateral Scrotal Testicles

Park, Jae Shin; Kim, Chun Il; Kim, Kwang Sae

Abstract

An experimental study was made to investigate the fertility of unilateral cryptorchidism in rat, Twenty-six male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated to create unilateral mechanical cryptorchidism at 5 weeks of age and both testicles were examined microscopically at 13, 19 and 25 weeks of age. Testicular volume, tubular diameter and spermatogenic index were subjected to statistical analysis. No significant differences were found in testicular volumes of the contralateral scrotal testicle (P>0.05 ), whereas that of the intraabdominal testicle was greatly decreased (P <0.001). Found was considerable decrease in contralateral scrotal testicles in terms of spermatogenic, index and tubular diameter (P <0.01), in addition to significant changes of intraabdominal testicle (P<0.001). Severe histological change depicted by thickening of the basement membranes of seminiferous tubules and peritubular hyalinization were noted in the intraabdominal testicles while contralateral scrotal testicle showing a mild to moderate changes. In conclusion, one can state that spermatogenesis is decreased in both intraabdominal as well as contralateral scrotal testicles, the severity of the former being greater than the latter.