EFFECT OF TAURINE ADMINSTRATIONON THE STRUCTURE OF RABBIT TESTES

Abstract

The aim of this work was to analyze the effect of taurine (TAU) on the microscopic structure of rabbit testes, focusing on individual parameters of the seminiferous tubules. We used 5 months old sexually mature male rabbits, which were divided into four experimental groups. Rabbits from the experimental groups E1, E2, and E3 received taurine dissolved in drinking water (doses 321.675 mg/rabbit/day, 643.35 mg/rabbit/day and 965.025 mg/rabbit/day) for four weeks. To compare the results of our experiment a control group of rabbits (KK) was created without any TAU administration. We analyzed the following morphometric parameters: the diameter of the seminiferous tubules (μm), the height of the epithelium and the diameter of the lumen of the seminiferous tubules (μm), the area (μm2) and the perimeter (μm) of the seminiferous tubules. Based on our results, we have found that the oral administration of TAU caused a significant increase (P<0.05) of the diameter (E1, E2, E3), height of epithelium (E3), lumen thickness (E1), area (E3) and perimeter (E3) of the seminiferous tubules when compared to the control group (KK). Based on these findings we can conclude that oral administration of taurine at the highest dose (965.025 mg/rabbit/day, group E3) caused the most significant changes in the structure of the rabbit seminiferous tubules. We consider that administration of taurine induced increasing values of the studied parameters in the seminiferous tubules, which indicates a positive effect of taurine on spermatogenesis.