Fig. 4

Changes in the seminiferous epithelial architecture during CdCl₂-induced testis injury. A The regimen used for the experiments reported in (B). B Changes in the architectural organization of the seminiferous epithelium during CdCl₂-induced testis injury time-dependently with gross epithelial structural damage detected by as early as 12 h. These damages include a time-dependent reduction in tubule diameter, a considerable loss of tubule lumen space due to exfoliation of germ cells, appearance of vacuoles across the epithelium, an indicator of Sertoli cell injury [53, 55, 57]. This figure was prepared using a representative set of adult rats (~ 300 gm b.w.) and two other animal sets yielded similar results. Scale bar, 300 µm, 100 µm, and 50 µm, corresponding to the first image of the first, second, and third columns in the top panel