[Quantitative determination of sperm production from biopsy tissue through the estimation of maximum production ability of the testes in rabbits].

Male rabbits were brought to ejaculate with the artifical vagina 6 times a week and from this the weekly sperm output was calculated. Testicular biopsies were taken 3 times, once in a 4-week interval from the same rabbits. The volumetric proportion of primary spermatocytes (method 1), all round spermatids (method 2) and round spermatids of stage 1 of the cycle (method 3) were determined from the biopsied tissue and with this and the corrected testicular volume the maximal sperm production was calculated. The correlations between the calculated sperm production and the actually counted sperm output was 0.80 with method 1,0.77 with method 2, and 0.66 with method 3. The best method to determine the maximal sperm production from testicular tissue is by counting the number of spermatids at stage 1 of the cycle, but in cases with reduced spermatogenesis it is difficult to get enough of these tubular sections, method 2 is therefore sometimes easier to apply.