Kawata T, Tamiki A, Tashiro A, Suga K, Kamioka S, Yamada K, Wada M, Tanaka N, Tadokoro T, Maekawa A
Faculty of Education, Okayama University, Japan.
Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 1997;67(1):17-21.
The effect of vitamin B12 (B12)-deficiency on testicular tissue was investigated through morphological observations of the rats which had been fed on a B12-deficient soybean protein diet by pair-feeding for 100 days. Testicular B12 content was depressed distinctly by the deficiency. Testes weight and their relative weight (weight per 100 g body weight) as well, decreased significantly as compared with those of pair-feeding control rats. Although the decrease in the testicular B12 content due to B12-deficiency was compensated by the administration of cyanocobalamin (CN-B12), alleviation of the decrease in testes weight and relative testes weight was not observed under the condition of the short-term CN-B12 administration. Morphological observations of the testicular tissue in B12-deficient rats revealed atrophy of the seminiferous tubules and aplasia of sperms and spermatids, while testicular findings in both ad libitum-feeding control rats and pair-feeding control rats were normal. There was a tendency for the decrease in seminiferous tubules showing spermatogenesis to be alleviated by administration of CN-B12. The above results indicate that the morphological changes in the testicular tissue are ascribable to B12-deficiency.
通过对成对喂养100天缺乏维生素B12（B12）的大豆蛋白饮食大鼠进行形态学观察，研究了B12缺乏对睾丸组织的影响。缺乏B12会使睾丸B12含量明显降低。与成对喂养的对照大鼠相比，睾丸重量及其相对重量（每100克体重的重量）也显著降低。虽然通过给予氰钴胺（CN-B12）可弥补因B12缺乏导致的睾丸B12含量下降，但在短期给予CN-B12的情况下，未观察到睾丸重量和相对睾丸重量下降的缓解。对B12缺乏大鼠睾丸组织的形态学观察显示，生精小管萎缩，精子和精细胞发育不全，而自由采食对照大鼠和成对喂养对照大鼠的睾丸检查结果均正常。给予CN-B12有减轻显示生精的生精小管减少的趋势。上述结果表明，睾丸组织的形态学变化可归因于B12缺乏。
