SENILE CHANGES OF THE TESTIS WITH RELATION TO ITS VASCULAR PATTERNS
A MICROANGIOGRAPHIC AND HISTOLOGIC STUDY
1969 Volume 60 Issue 4 Pages 304-312
Details
1969 Volume 60 Issue 4 Pages 304-312
Senile lesions of the human testes were histologically observed and the microangiographic vascular patterns were significant in the etiology. The materials used for microangiographic and histological studies were the right testes obtained from thirty-nine and eighty-two autopsy cases respectively.
The results were summarized as following:
1) After joining with the deferential artery the spermatic artery divides into one to a few main arteries, which penetrate the capsula albuginea in the hilus and go down along the medial surface of the testis.
Then they turn up along the lateral surface up to the upper pole. On the upward way the main arteries extend branches towards the mediastinum testis along the course of the seminiferous tubule.
2) The venous blood of the anterior half of the testis flows along the course of the seminiferous tubule to the main veins which run parallel with the main arteries. In the posterior half veins drain to the venous plexus of the mediastinum testis which join with the main, veins from the anterior part at the hilus of the testis.
3) The senile changes of the testis are prominent in the upper and centripetal areas of the testis which correspond to the periphery of the arterial supply.
4) The reduction of the spermatogenesis with thickening of the basement membrane of the seminiferous tubules focally appears in the forth decade and is prominent in the fifth decade. The increment of lipofuscin pigment in the Leydig cells appears late and is focally observed in the fifth to sixth decade.
5) The hernia-like protrusion is increased in number up to the sixth and seventh decades and decreased thereafter. The lesion is regarded as one step of the course in the development of the seminiferous tubule, a bud to develop to a branch or a bridge between the tubules.
6) It is concluded that circulatory disturbances would be most prominent in the etiology of the senile lesions of the testes.
