Testicular Injury in Rats Irradiated during Infancy

Rats eight or 17 days old were exposed to doses of 50, 150, 300 or 500 R whole body X irradiation. Half of each group of animals received AET intraperitoneally ten minutes before irradiation. The weight of the testes is determined by X-ray dose, by the age at the time of irradiation and by the injection of AET. The percentage of tubules without germ cells and the average number of spermatocytes per tubule are altered by high doses of X rays, while the average diameter of the tubules is not changed by irradiation. The histological damage in rats irradiated at 17 days is greater than in those exposed at 8 days. An injection of AET shows no protective effect against the histological injury at the time of analysis and for the X-ray doses used. Testicular damage in rats irradiated during infancy cannot be evaluated in terms of testes weight only and during a certain time interval there is no correlation between fertility, structural changes and weight.