J. Vanvliet et al., PROTECTION OF SPERMATOGENESIS AGAINST CYTOTOXIC EFFECTS OF 2 CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC DRUGS BY TEMPORARY TESTICULAR BLOOD-FLOW INTERRUPTION IN THE RAM, Andrologia, 25(5), 1993, pp. 251-256
Temporary interruption of the testicular blood flow for 1 h after inje
ction of cytostatic drugs has a protective effect on spermatogenesis.
This was shown in experiments in which spermatogenesis was evaluated a
t four weeks after a single intravenous injection of Adriblastina(R) (
ADR; doxorubicine hydrochloride) or Mitomycin-C-kyowa(R) (MIT). Interr
uption of the blood flow was performed by inflation of an occluder imp
lanted around the testicular artery. The animals were killed and histo
logical sections prepared 4 weeks after treatment. In all drug-treated
animals spermatids were near absence and spermatocytes were decreased
in number. Therefore, even after occlusion of the blood flow, the dru
g doses were high enough to kill not only large numbers of differentia
ting spermatogonia but also stem cells. The response of the stem cells
to the treatments was evaluated by counting the numbers of A spermato
gonia per 100 Sertoli cells in the different groups. Normal numbers of
these cells were found after both MIT and ADR, indicating that the st
em cell population had responded to the initial cell loss by extra pro
liferation. However significantly higher numbers of A spermatogonia we
re found in the drug-treated animals in which the testicular blood flo
w was interrupted for 1 h. This indicates that occlusion of the blood
flow to the testis for 1 h results in a faster recovery of spermatogen
esis than after drug treatment alone.