Morphological and enzyme histochemical observations on alcohol induced disturbances in testis of two patients

Testicular biopsies from two patients with alcohol induced fertility disturbances and one patient with intact spermatogenesis were investigated with the help of histological and enzyme histochemical methods. Main alcohol induced changes include: 1. loss of typical arrangement of elongated spermatids in the form of a "bunch of grapes", dominance of duplicated form of elongated spermatids, to a large extent loss of acrosomal formation: 2. thickening, hyalinosis, and sclerosis of lamina propria with nearly complete lack of Ca++-ATPase; 3. decrease of 3 beta-hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase and 17 beta-hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase activity in the Leydig cells, and 4. appearance of oval or spindle shaped mast cells in the interstitial tissue. Lamina propria seems to be the main target of deleterious effects of alcohol.