Changes in Sexual Behavior of Orchidectomized Rats under Influence of Allotransplantation of Testicular Interstitial Cell Suspension

Abstract

Transplantation of hormone-producing cells is an experimental endocrine dysfunction treatment. The present study investigated the effects of orchidectomy (OE) and transplantation of interstitial cell suspension (ICS) on rat sexual behavior. Adult experimental animals were divided into two populations. One of these populations had sexual experience before the experiment and the other did not. Each population was divided into three groups: control group and two orchidectomized groups. One of the orchidectomized groups was treated with ICS, and the other was treated with the vehicle. The changes in the sexual behavior were investigated on the following parameters: mount latency (ML), intromission latency (IL), ejaculation latency (EL), mount frequency (MF), intromission frequency (IF), copulatory efficacy (CE), and IF/EL ratio. The investigation of these changes lasted 4 weeks after ICS transplantation. The parameters of sexual behavior reflected a decrease in sexual function after OE at the beginning of the observation, especially for the animals that did not have a sexual experience. However, it was shown that sexual activity increased in the following 4 weeks. We have indicated that the loss of gonads attenuated the capacity to acquire sexual experience; nonetheless, it did not mean that the animals completely lost this capacity. Transplantation of ICS facilitated the maintenance of male sexual behavior after OE, fractionally enlarged the size of regressed seminal vesicles of the animals, and increased the free testosterone (T) level. These findings suggest the ICS can be considered as a temporal source of androgens, which can facilitate a restoration of sexual activity.