Effects of experimental varicocele require neither adrenal contribution nor venous reflux

Experimental left varicocele (ELV) is known to induce bilateral changes in the rat testis that, where comparisons are possible, are similar to the changes induced by unilateral varicocele in the human. In the present study, we have determined whether or not left adrenal products are important to the changes induced by ELV and whether or not reflux of left renal vein content occurs in the ELV rat. In the first study, testicular blood flow and temperature were studied in control animals and those with ELV, left adrenalectomy (LAX), or ELV + LAX. Control left and right testicular blood flow (33.6 +/- 0.8 and 33.6 +/- 1.5 ml./min./100 gm. tissue respectively) was significantly elevated by ELV (to 39.9 +/- 0.9 and 41.2 +/- 2.7 ml./min./100 gm. tissue, respectively) and the difference between abdominal and testicular temperatures (delta T) was significantly reduced. Control delta T's for right and left testes were 3.2 +/- 0.2C and 3.2 +/- 0.2C, respectively, and right and left delta T's for ELV animals were 2.0 +/- 0.3 degrees C and 2.0 +/- 0.3C, respectively. These blood flow and temperature changes also occurred when ELV animals were subjected to simultaneous LAX. Additionally, when 85Sr-labelled microspheres were infused into the left renal vein, they did not appear in either left or right testes of ELV animals. We conclude that there is no evidence for reflux down the spermatic vein in ELV in rats and adrenal products do not reach the testis via this route after being secreted into the renal vein. We raise the suggestion that the same may be true in the human.