Morphometric studies of the epididymal duct in the F-zone after apical mesotestis cutting

Abstract

The alterations of the epididymal F-zone caused by apical mesotestis bilateral cutting after scrotal exposition were studied in adult albino rats.The epididymis were removed at 2, 4, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after surgery.With a semi-automatic program, from a IBAS 2000 image analyzer, areas, perimeters and maximum and minimum diameters were measured from both the tubular and the lumen sections of the caput epididymal F-zone.The animals with cutting of the apical mesotestis showed a significative increase with respect to controls for all the considered variables, indicating a tubular dilatation as a consequence of the surgical intervention.The mast cells present in the connective tissue of the F-zone of the control animals presented a typical fluorescent colour with Acridine Orange, while this was not observed in the animals with cutting of the apical mesotestis.