Effect Of Water Deprivation-induced Dehydration On The Transport Of Spermatozoa In The Rat Testis: A Morphometric Study

Objective: To determine whether dehydration would affect the transportof spermatozoa produced by the testis to the epididymis in rats.Methods:30male Sprague-Dawley rats (aged51-52days) wererandomly divided into2groups, with one group (control group, n=18) beingfed routine feed (pellet diet) and water while the other group (experimentalgroup, n=12) given feed only without water.4-5days later, blood wasobtained from the heart to measure parameters such as hematocrit and serumsodium; and then the testis and epididymis were removed,20m (thickness)methacrylate-embedded sections were made, and morphometric studies wereperformed.Results: In comparison with the control group, the bodyweight reducedby30%in the experiment group; the hematocrit, and the serum sodium,hemoglobin, red blood cells count, urea nitrogen and albumin levels increasedby40%,15%,25%,26%,65%and18%, respectively; and the testicularvolume decreased by19%, the mean diameter of the seminiferous tubulesreduced by7%, and the total volume of testicular interstitium reduced by29%.In the control group, about5.9%of the seminiferous tubule profiles wereobserved with looser arrangement of spermatogenic cells, and about14.2%ofthe seminiferous tubule profiles with late elongated spermatids being retainedwithin the seminiferous epithelium; in the experimental group, however, the2results were as much as29.4%and53.5%, respectively. In comparison with the control group, the volumes of the epididymal head and tail in theexperimental group decreased by41%and26%, respectively; however, thetotal volumes of the cell mass (containing spermatozoa and immaturespermatogenic cells) in the epididymal duct did not decrease and the numbers(semi-quantitative analysis) of round spermatids even increased.Conclusion: Short-term acute dehydration induced by water deprivationdid not affect the transport of sperm and immature sperm cells in the testis,but it might have damaged the junctions between spermatogenic cells andSertoli cells, thus resulting in impairment of spermiation, and looserarrangement and earlier sloughing of spermatogenic cells.