ORGAN AND BODY SYSTEMS 517 



GONADAL SYSTEM 



Testis. — Feroux and Regaud (100) find that the sensitive cells in the 

 testis are the basal cells and the spermatogonads. The adult sperms are 

 apparently insensitive since they show no change following irradiation. 

 This is borne out by fertility and in vitro motility tests on adult sperms in 

 rabbits (8). Wigoder (387) found that in guinea pigs and rats steriliza- 

 tion occurred usually at 750 r. The latent period between irradiation 

 and complete destruction could be reduced by higher doses. The sperma- 

 tocytes were most sensitive, the spermatogonia more resistant. The 

 abnormalities included the formation of abnormal cells (giant cells) the 

 overgrowth of basal (Sertoli) cells, and a high percentage of residual and 

 proliferating interstitial tissue. Complete steriUty with very large doses 

 could be produced in the rat within 7 days, which is a shorter period than 

 that reported by other observers (100). Irradiation of live guinea-pig 

 sperm with 2000 r at 85 kv. caused no changes, but irradiation of the 

 testis with doses up to 7000 r caused the sperm of the killed animal to be 

 more active and live longer than that of the control animal. This is 

 certainly unexpected and contrary to the usual experimental results with 

 other types of cells. Larger doses killed the animal. A review of these 

 experiments seemed to show that the sperm from a control testis had 

 precisely the same activity, so that it is the reviewer's opinion that 

 these are normal variations and not specific radiation effects (cf. 162). 



Adler (2) describes a decrease of the in vitro metabolism and an 

 increase of aerobic and anaerobic glycolysis, appearing 24 hours and 

 reaching a maximum about 34 days after intensive irradiation. At this 

 later time a histological examination revealed degenerative changes in 

 the nuclei of the sperm-producing cells. Lesions develop in the seminif- 

 erous tubules in a zone of about 0.6 mm. depth after 20 to 30 sec. expo- 

 sure of the rat testis to high voltage (200 to 250-kv. cathode "rays" or 

 electrons (167). Shorter exposure showed less penetration. The 

 spermatogonia, spermatocytes, and spermatids showed fragmentation 

 and karyolysis of nuclei, pycnosis, and decreased amount of mitosis. 

 The basal (Sertoli) cells are not very much affected nor were the inter- 

 stitial cells. There was considerable damage to the scrotal skin with 

 acute necrosis of the epidermal and hair-follicle epithelium and vascular 

 damage. The collagenous fibrils of the corium were hyalinized and fused. 

 Omry. —Gricouroff and Murray (130) give probably the most com- 

 plete description of the changes brought about by roentgen irradiation in 

 ovogenesis. In a comparison of 295 mice of a highly in-bred strain, they 

 used 100 for control study and irradiated the remaining 195 closely related 

 animals with various doses of roentgen rays. Many variations are 

 described in the control ovaries. This side-by-side comparison of the 

 variations common to unirradiated and irradiated ovaries is essential to 



