An in vitro bioassay to assess the potential global toxicity of waters on spermatogenesis: a pilot study.

Many toxicants are present in water as a mixture. Male infertility is one of the environmental impacts in developed countries. Using our rat seminiferous tubule culture model, we evaluated the effects of waters of different origins, on several parameters of the seminiferous epithelium.

Effects of a mixture of low doses of atrazine and benzo[a]pyrene on the rat seminiferous epithelium either during or after the establishment of the blood-testis barrier in the rat seminiferous tubule culture model.

Atrazine (ATZ), a widely used agricultural pesticide and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a ubiquitous environmental human carcinogen can induce alterations of spermatogenesis. In the present study, we showed first that our seminiferous tubule culture model, in bicameral chambers, allowed the settlement of the blood-testis barrier (BTB) in 8-day-old male rat cultures and the differentiation of spermatogonia into round spermatids.The effect of a mixture of 1 μg/L of ATZ and 1 μg/L of BaP was then investigated either during or after the establishment of the BTB by using 8- or 20-22-day-old rats.

Effects of low doses of carbendazim or iprodione either separately or in mixture on the pubertal rat seminiferous epithelium: An ex vivo study.

It has been shown that non-cytotoxic doses of Carbendazim (CBZ), a broad-spectrum benzimidazole fungicide, possess endocrine-disrupting (androgen-like) actions, ex vivo, on the pubertal rat seminiferous epithelium. Iprodione (IPR), a dicarboximide fungicide, is also known to be an endocrine-disrupter (anti-androgen). The effect of a mixture of these two pesticides was investigated in the validated rat seminiferous tubule culture model.

Complete Human and Rat Ex Vivo Spermatogenesis from Fresh or Frozen Testicular Tissue.

Until now, complete ex vivo spermatogenesis has been reported only in the mouse. In this species, the duration of spermatogenesis is 35 days, whereas it is 54 days in the rat and 74 days in humans. We performed long-term (until 60 days) cultures of fresh or frozen rat or human seminiferous tubule segments in a bioreactor made of a hollow cylinder of chitosan hydrogel.

Radiologic versus endoscopic placement of percutaneous gastrostomy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: multivariate analysis of tolerance, efficacy, and survival.

Purpose: To compare percutaneous radiologic gastrostomy (PRG) and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) in terms of tolerance, efficacy, and survival in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Materials And Methods: Forty patients with ALS (17 men; mean age, 66.1 years; range, 39-83 y) underwent 21 PEG and 22 PRG attempts (including three unsuccessful PEG attempts) from 1999 to 2005.