[Endocrine and spermatogenic testicular function. 2. Correlations between food protein quality, testosterone level in testes, spermatogenesis and nuclear volume of interstitial cells of Leydig in the adult rat].

Male adult Wistar rats were given different food proteins through 21 days, including casein and four-per-cent methionine (K diet), maize gluten with amino acid added (M + As diet), maize gluten alone (M diet), and casein with four-per-cent methionine mixed one to three with gelatin (K/G diet). Testicular testosterone levels per 100 g live weight were about 411 ng (in animals aged 130 days) or 326 ng in animals aged 160 days) following 21 days of K or M + As feeding (rRP = ten per cent). Roughly 70 per cent of those values were obtained by M or K/G feeding. The use of 20 per cent rRP gave 342 ng in connection with M + As feeding or 289 ng when it accompanied M feeding (the latter figures being recorded from animals aged 160 days). The eight cyclic phases of the germinal epithelium were completely development, independent of RP quality, in all test animals. The nuclear volume of the interstitial cells of Leydig responded with highly significant variation (p less than 0.01) to diets with ten per cent rRP of different qualities, but no significant morphokinetic effect was recorded by karyometric from diets with 20 per cent rRP.