[Morphometric studies of the epididymal duct in the F-zone after apical mesotestis cutting].

The alterations of the epididymal F-zone caused by apical mesotestis bilateral cutting after scrotal exposition were studied in adult albino rats. The epididymis were removed at 2, 4, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after surgery. With a semi-automatic program, from a IBAS 2000 image analyzer, areas, perimeters and maximum and minimum diameters were measured from both the tubular and the lumen sections of the caput epididymal F-zone. The animals with cutting of the apical mesotestis showed a significative increase with respect to controls for all the considered variables, indicating a tubular dilatation as a consequence of the surgical intervention. The mast cells present in the connective tissue of the F-zone of the control animals presented a typical fluorescent colour with Acridine Orange, while this was not observed in the animals with cutting of the apical mesotestis.