Sympathetic Nerves and Reproductive Organs in the Male Rabbit

The Importance of Short Adrenergic Neurons in the Seminal Emission Mechanism of Rat, Guinea-Pig and Man

“…In humans, Learmonth (1931) systematically stimulated the individual roots of the presacrai (hypogastric) nerve, and confirmed the sympathetic origin of the innervation to the male accessory genital apparatus, including the posterior urethra and the bladder neck. From denervation studies on rabbits, Hodson (1964Hodson ( , 1965 (Falck, Owman & Sjöstrand, 1965; and close to the proximal part of the urethra (Owman, Owman & Sjöberg, 1971). The findings indicate that the region of the bladder neck in guinea-pigs and rats receives its postganglionic adrenergic innervation mainly, if not entirely, from short adrenergic neurons rather than from the hypogastric nerves.…”

“…The organization appears to be somewhat different in the cat (Hamberger & Norberg, 1965a, b), in which the hypogastric nerves carry a significant portion of postganglionic nerves to the bladder trigonum which, in addition, contains intramural adrenergic ganglion cells. (Remy, 1886;Bacq, 1931;Simeone, 1933;Hodson, 1964Hodson, , 1965 fluid reflux into the bladder usually observe seminal contamination of the urine only after coitus. However, it is possible that the persistent post-denervation reflux is small and therefore escapes detection whereas contraction of surrounding pelvic musculature during coitus promotes the passive transport in the internal genital organs, followed by a more voluminous reflux.…”

The Autonomic Innervation of the Rat Testicular Capsule

“…These data suggest that, at least in the above species, passage of spermatozoa out of the testis is main¬ tained in the absence of a functional capsular innervation, and that the failure of spermatogenesis which results from denervation is more likely to be attri¬ butable to back-pressure or to vasomotor disturbances (Hodson, 1965).…”

“…Although it has been widely accepted that a positive AChE reaction can be used as a criterion of cholinergic nerves, doubt has been cast recently on whether this is valid for the rat (Eränkö, Rechardt, Eränkö & Cunningham, 1970 Surgical denervation of the internal genitalia of the rat (Swedin, 1971b) and rabbit (Hodson, 1965) produces a massive build-up of spermatozoa in the caput epididymidis, and recently a similar result has been found following pharmacological destruction of the pelvic sympathetic nerve supply in the rat (B. Gannon and B. Evans, personal communication). These data suggest that, at least in the above species, passage of spermatozoa out of the testis is main¬ tained in the absence of a functional capsular innervation, and that the failure of spermatogenesis which results from denervation is more likely to be attri¬ butable to back-pressure or to vasomotor disturbances (Hodson, 1965).…”

The Effects of Testicular Denervation on Spermatogenesis in the Sprague- Dawley Rat

“…Immunocytochemical studies have revealed the presence of nerve fibers containing neurotransmitters such as neuropeptide Y, vasoactive intestinal peptide and catecholamine in tunica albuginea, vasculature and interstitial tissue of the testis [12, 13, 14]. While neural regulation of testicular steroidogenesis is demonstrated by changes in Leydig cell functions after administration of neurotoxic drugs [15]or testicular denervation [16], regression of the seminiferous epithelium in denervated testes [17, 18, 19, 20]emphasizes the importance of neural control of spermatogenesis. To determine whether disruption of neural input to the testes contributes to the cascade leading to the regression of spermatogenesis after SCI, the current experiment examined cellular events in the seminiferous epithelium of the rat after surgical denervation of the testis.…”