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1 Departments of Urology and
Physiology, University of Virginia School
of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia
The objective of this research was to determine if experimental cryptorchidism causes significant changes
in the rat blood-testis barrier. Micropuncture of the
seminiferous tubules of normal, sham-operated, or
surgically-cryptorchid rats was performed after intravenous infusion of [3H]-inulin or subtunica injection
of [3H]-horseradish peroxidase. Concentration of the
isotopes in the lumen of the seminiferous tubule was
determined. Normal, sham, and cryptorchid tissues
were also immersed in hypertonic (.75 M) LiCl and prepared for observation by light microscopy. Micropuncture experiments demonstrated that cryptorchidism significantly increased the penetration of
the blood testis barrier by [3H]-inulin and [3H]-horseradish peroxidase. The LiCl emersion techniques, a
histological method of visually detecting the presence
of an intact blood-testis barrier, also demonstrated partial disruption of the blood-testis barrier in the cryptorchid testis. In spite of these alterations, the seminiferous tubules of the experimentally-cryptorchid testes
retained a large proportion of their capacity to exclude
macromolecules.
Key words: cryptorchidism, blood-testis barrier, rat, testicle, seminiferous tubule
Submitted on February 2, 1981
Revised on June 1, 1981
Accepted on June 24, 1981
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