Male reproduction experiments

MONASH University 

 Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
BackgroundReviewVirtual laboratoryQuiz
Control Castrated Cryptorchid Vasectomy EDS Testosterone Estradiol GnRH antagonist Summary

Experimental control

Mobile Support Warning

This simulation was designed with a desktop interface in mind, and may not function correctly on smaller screens or mobile devices.

Make a prediction:


Testosterone levels

Drag the pipette to extract a drop of blood from the tail of the rat. Then drop the blood in the tube and run the assay to measure the level of testosterone.


Weight of body and reproductive organs

Drag the rat and the reproductive organs and drop them on the scales to get their weight. Fill the table with the data obtained.

Organ Weight (g)
Body
Testis
Epididymis
Vas deferens
Seminal vesicle
Prostate
Organ Weight (g)
Control Experiment
Body
Testis
Epididymis
Vas deferens
Seminal vesicle
Prostate

Histology of reproductive organs

Drop the organs on the microscope to observe their histology. Observe changes between treatment groups in cell composition, structure and function.


Sperm motility

Watch the videos to evaluate sperm motility in the head and tail of the epididymis, and in the testis. Rank the motility according to the following table:

None Some Most All
0 1 2 3

Use your observations to fill out the following table:

Motility
Head of epididymis
Tail of epididymis
Testis


Diameter of the seminiferous tubule

Measure the diameter of the seminiferous tubule by looking at one section through the microscope. To facilitate the measurement, we have overlaid the tubule onto a grid, whose smallest squares are 10x10 µm.

Gonadectomy

Cryptorchid

Bilateral (open-ended) vasectomy

Ethane dimethane sulphonate (EDS)

Testosterone

Estradiol

GnRH antagonist

Summary of the effect of the different treatments

This table will populate for you as you fill out the tables in the previous tabs.

Control Castrated Cryptorchid Vasectomy EDS T-treated E2-treated GnRH antagonist

Once you have collected all the data (i.e. the summary table above is completely filled out), some links will appear below to download your collected data and the class data from last year for you to perform statistical analyses on.

Download your collected data

Download class data

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Developed by Glitch Taylor and Dr. Maria del Mar Quiroga, under the direction of Prof. Ramesh Rajan
All queries should be directed to physiol-sim@monash.edu