Abstract
A detailed study was made of the events taking place during the early onset of vitamin A deficiency (VAD). Pregnant Wistar rats (18–20 days p.c.) were fed a VAD diet or a normal balanced diet. Newborn male rats received the same diet. Body growth of the animals on the VAD diet was found to slow down after the rats were 40 days old. Cell counts revealed that at a very early stage, between 44 and 46 days, soon after the slowing down of the body growth, the division of A1- into A2-spermatogonia no longer occurred, indicating an arrest at this stage of the spermatogenic process. All other types of differentiating spermatogonia were found to develop normally into spermatocytes except for the intermediate (In) spermatogonia, some of which were seen to degenerate. As a result of the inhibition of the formation of the A2-spermatogonia, a maturation depletion was found in which cell numbers decreased to those normally present in stage VIII. This depletion could be calculated to lead to a complete depletion at about day 58.
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© 1994 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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de Rooij, D.G. et al. (1994). Role of Retinoids in Spermatogonial Proliferation and Differentiation and the Meiotic Prophase. In: Bartke, A. (eds) Function of Somatic Cells in the Testis. Serono Symposia, USA. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2638-3_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2638-3_22
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