Spermatogenetic Activity after Early Postnatal Hypothalamic Lesion in Rats

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Medio-basal hypothalamic lesions were made by electric coagulation in Sprague-Dawley strain rats 20-24 hours after birth. Testicular development in these animals was examined 20, 40 and 60-70 days after birth. Transection (Group 1) or severe lesion (Group 2) of the pituitary stalk caused arrest of both spermatogenesis and testicular development. In these animals, on the 40th and 60th day after birth, the seminiferous tubules were very small in diameter and no spermatids or spermatozoa were found in the lumen. The seminiferous epithelium was very thin, and spermatogenesis was arrested in the premeiotic stage. Lesion of the posterior part of the median eminence, including the stalk (Group 4), also induced testicular atrophy, but spermatogenesis was not disturbed. Damage of the anterior portion of the median eminence (Group 3) did not cause testicular atrophy. When the median eminence and the stalk were intact, lesions of the hypothalamus, including the subthalamus, mamillary body and half the hypothalamus (Group 5), did not depress spermatogenesis. The hypophysis did not show any degeneration in all cases examined, although the size was very small in Groups 1 and 2. These findings suggest that development of testiculotropic function of the hypophysis is dependent on the hypothalamus, especially on the posterior medio-basal hypothalamus, even though the hypophysis grows independently of hypothalamic control.
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