Involvement of the Peripheral Nervous System on Hormonal Release from the Testis

CAVICCHIA,J.C., SOSA,Z.,PALMADA,N., F¨®SCOLO, M., BURGOS, M. H.

Washington DC. USA

Congreso; 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB); 2007

ASCB

  The involvement of the autonomic nervous system on the testis endocrinology has not yet been elucidated. The male gonad receives nerve fibres from  the abdominal autonomic ganglia  that converge  to the testis along two pathways, the superior spermatic nerves (SSN) and the inferior spermatic nerves (ISN). The SSN run from the superior mesenteric ganglion (SMG) alongside the testicular artery, whereas the ISN originate from the pelvic and inferior mesenteric ganglionic plexus  (IMP). The objective of this work was to explore if the addition of the neurotransmitters actylcholine (Ach) or noradrenaline (NA) in the SMG or in the IMP  modifies  the testosterone (T2) or the androstenedione (A2) release from the rat testis. For that, two ex vitro systems  (IMP-ISN-testis) and (SMG-SSN-testis) were used. Methods: After the surgical operations, each testis interconnected by the spermatic verves with the ganglionic plexus was transferred into two separate containers, one for the testis  and the other for the nerve plexus Ach or NE to a  final concentration  of 10-6 M  were administered in the ganglionic compartment (experimental).Control samples were obtained without the use of neurotransmitters. The incubation medium placed in each metabolic bath was buffer Krebs-Ringer pH 7.4 at 370C. The T2 or A2 released from the testis were measured by RIA. Results: (ng /mg testis/ml; mean ¡À SEM). With the addition of Ach in the IMP compartment, both the T2 and the A2  release increases (p ¡Ü 0.001 ) While in the SMG, they diminish their liberation (p¡Ü 0.001 ) respect to the control groups.  Conclusions: Our results indicate that the autonomic nervous stimulation  is important for the hormonal release from the testis making evident that the neural function via the peripheral nervous system would be directly involved  on  the testis physiology.