[Quantitative histopathological study on the adriamycin testicular toxicity in rats]

Testicular toxicity induced by adriamycin (ADR) was studied using quantitative histopathological methods. Nine-week old male rats were received a single dose of 8 mg/kg ADR. At 3, 7, 14 and 21 days after the treatment, animals were sacrificed for histopathological evaluation. Numbers of seminiferous epithelia were counted in seminiferous tubule of spermatogenic stages I, II, V, VII and XII. A decrease in spermatogonia was observed in seminiferous tubules of stages I, II and V at 3 days after the treatment. Thereafter, numbers of other types of seminiferous epithelia decreased following progress of spermatogenic cycle. Analysis of spermatogenic cycle movement and germ cell differentiation suggested that ADR was highly effective in killing spermatogonia type A, and the severity of ADR damage would be different depending on subtypes of spermatogonia type A and spermatogenic stages.