A fertility-oriented method for histological processing of testicular biopsies in men with azoospermia.

The present study was designed to evaluate whether tissue preparation by glutaraldehyde and glycol methacrylate (G/GMA) improves the diagnostic assessment of testicular biopsies from azoospermic men when compared to the standard tissue preparation using Bouin's solution and paraffin. We prospectively included a total of 21 testicular biopsies of sexually mature men aged 29-50 years with infertility and azoospermia. One testicular biopsy fragment from each patient was processed by the G/GMA method, whereas another tissue fragment was contemporarily processed by the conventional Bouin/paraffin (B/P) method.

Influence of three different histological methods on the morphology and morphometrical data in human testis.

Coagulant fixatives and paraffin embedding were widely used in the past for histomorphometrical evaluations of the human testis under physiological and pathological conditions. However, new methods are applied nowadays using better combinations of fixatives and plastic resins as embedding media, improving cell and tissue structural preservation. In an attempt to compare old and new data, the present study evaluated histomorphometrical data obtained from human testis after three different histological processing methods: Bouin/paraplast, glutaraldehyde/glycol methacrylate and glutaraldehyde/araldite.