3.3. Reproductive system
Both experimental groups presented well-developed male
reproductive systems (Fig. 1E), except for one AGA male lacking
the distal and part of the middle portions of the left VD (Fig. 1F).
From an anatomical point of view, the relative size of testes did
not qualitatively differ between treatments. The histological analysis
of the testes revealed a normal structure of the testicular lobes
in both experimental groups.
The control males presented the following histological characteristics
of the DVD: (1) an epithelium composed of a monolayer of cells
tightly attached to a thick muscular sheath; (2) a secondary layer of
the spermatophore composed of a homogeneous matrix (which appear
pale blue in Masson-Trichrome staining), and cytoplasmatic
droplets (which appear bright red in Masson-Trichrome staining)
of an approximately same size, both homogeneously distributed;
and (3) an approximately uniform distribution of the spermatic cord
sections, all of which contained spermatozoa (Fig. 2A and B).
The DVD of the ablated animals showed a remarkable enlargement
from a macroscopic point of view (Fig. 1F) with certain histological
abnormalities. A clearly disorganized and degenerative
epithelium was observed in some cases (Fig. 2D); also, an