Effect of unilateral orchidectomy on testicular characteristics of the domestic cat

G. GARCÍA ROMERO; M SIRINI; A RISSO; P FERNANDEZ; C BARBEITO; C GOBELLO

Congreso; Annual Conference of the Society for Theriogenoloy; 2011

The aim of this study was to describe the effect of unilateral orchidectomy (UO) on testicular characteristics of mature domestic cats. Five male cats were unilaterally orchidectomized on d 0 (right testis) and d 60 (left testis). Both groups (d 0 vs. d 60) were compared by Student’s t test and P values < 0.05 were considered significant. No significant differences between testes groups were found for any of the gross and microscopic parameters assessed (mean±SEM): testis weight (1.54±0.4 g vs.1.7±0.2 g), length (1.94±0.1 cm vs.1.92±0.8 cm) and width (1.04±0.1 cm vs.1.04±0.1 cm), volume (0.95±0.1cm3 vs. 0.95±0.1 cm3), gonadosomatic index (0.03±0.01 % vs. 0.04±0.01 %), maximum (240.5±29.8 µm vs. 250.8±18.6 µm), minimum (166.6±24.4 µm vs.194.1±13.1 µm) and medium (202.6±26.2 µm vs. 220.9±14.9 µm) tubular diameters, major (240.9±29.1 µm vs. 247.5±18.3 µm) and minor (171.8±24.7 µm vs. 200.4±12.6 µm) tubular axes, area (35356.2±8482.8 µm2 vs. 39622.9±5193.4 µm2) and tubular perimeter (668.1±84.8 µm vs. 718.7± 47.7µm), germinal epithelium height (58.6±7.5 µm vs. 55.3±5.3 µm), spermatogonias (0.056±0.1 cm3 vs. 0.052±0.1cm3), primary spermatocytes (0.10±0.1 cm3 vs. 0.11±0.1 cm3), secondary spermatocytes (0.003±0.01 cm3 vs. 0.002±0.01 cm3), round spermatids (0.12±0.01 cm3 vs. 0.13±0.01 cm3), elongated spermatids (0.07±0.01 cm3 vs. 0.066±0.01 cm3), spermatozoa (0.04±0.01 cm3 vs. 0.03±0.01 cm3), Sertoli cells (0.064±0.01 cm3 vs. 0.072±0.01 cm3), Leydig cells (0.04±0.01 cm3 vs. 0.04±0.01 cm3), intertubular compartment (0.12±0.02 cm3 vs. 0.12±0.02 cm3), lumen (0.2±0.04 cm3 vs. 0.3±0.03 cm3), cellular debris (0.02±0.01 cm3 vs. 0.01±0.01 cm3), tubular- intertubular compartment proportion (7.17±1.2 vs. 7.29±1.3), basement membrane (0.02±0.01 cm3 vs. 0.02±0.01 cm3) and total tubular length (38.73±10.5 m vs. 32.66±6.2 m). To our knowledge, this is the first investigation to describe the effect of UO in the domestic cats. According to these biometric and morphometric results adult cats, do not develop compensatory hypertrophy after UO.