Testicular Injury in Rats Irradiated during Infancy

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Abstract
Rats 8 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 2-amino-ethylisothiouronium bromide (AET) intraperitoneally 10 minutes before irradiation. 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. 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.