抄録
Impotence commonly occurs after events such as acute myocardial infarction, coronary bypass, head trauma, and cerebral bleeding, including subarachnoid hemorrhage. One possible explanation is that the hypoxia that occurs with such events results in damage to the testis or to the blood-testis barrier. We examined the effect of cardiac arrest in mice on testis weight and on the permeability of the blood-testis barrier to albumin and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) . Testis weight was decreased by about 24% 12 h after cardiac arrest but had recovered fully by day 7. The testis/serum ratio for albumin also was increased 12 h after arrest showing a disruption in the blood-testis barrier with recovery by 24 h. There were no statistically significant effects on the permeability of the blood-testis barrier to TNF-α. These results show that cardiac arrest transiently affects testis weight and the integrity of its blood-barrier. Such transient changes might induce long-term effects on testicular function that could lead to impotence.
