Ascorbic acid and the prevention of the early action of cadmium on scrotal and cryptorchid testes in the rat.

An injection of cadmium chloride at a dose level of 0.45 mg/100 g bw, exerts a differential deleterious influence on cryptorchid and contralateral scrotal testes of the same rat. A considerable damage of the cryptorchid testis is caused, with degenerative changes, after 72h following cadmium administration. However, a concomitant regimen of ascorbic acid, a potent antitoxic agent as well as a blocker of nonspecific stresses, prevents those testicular lesions quite appreciably. On the basis of our experimental documentation we believe that the adverse influence of cadmium at the testicular level might be a mediation of the metabolic alteration due to an augmented availability of endogenous catecholamines.