Biology of the scrotum. IV. Testis location and temperature sensitivity

Whereas abdominal temperatures have no effect on spermatogenesis in testicondid mammals but inhibit the process completely in scrotal mammals, the inguinal testes of the naturally cryptorchid musk shrew and degu have been found to display an intermediate response. Twelve to 18 weeks after transposition to the abdomen (and so about 1.5 degrees C above its normal inguinal temperature) the weight of the testis was reduced by 27% (musk shrew) and 52% (degu). Nonetheless, spermatogenesis continued in both, though at a lower rate and with a greater proportion of abnormal spermatozoa formed. The ultrastructural anomalies evident in some spermatids of the degu testis transposed to the abdomen were reminiscent of those seen commonly in the germinal epithelium of "normal" men. Natural cryptorchids may thus be useful models in which to discover whether spermatogenesis at a temperature somewhat above the norm for the species compromises the ability of fertilizing spermatozoa to support normal development. The fact that deep-body temperature induces only a partial suppression of function in the inguinal testis of natural cryptorchids shows that there is no, absolute distinction between the scrotal and ascrotal states among mammals with respect to the temperature sensitivity of the testis. That visible sensitivity seems more likely to reflect the adaptation of the metabolically dynamic germinal epithelium to function optimally at the temperature of the location to which the testis migrates, rather than any fundamental incompatability between spermatogenesis and the temperature imposed by homeothermy. External migration of the testis itself may originally have helped the sperm storage region of the associated epididymis to project from and so attain a cooler environment than that beneath the body surface.