[Morphological characteristics of fetal testes in chronic intrauterine hypoxia in different gestation periods].

OBJECTIVE

To study the morphological characteristics and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the fetal testes exposed to chronic intrauterine hypoxia during pathological pregnancy in different gestation periods.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

The testes from 48 male fetuses that had died in the antenatal or early neonatal period in mothers with pathological pregnancy were morphologically evaluated.

RESULTS

Chronic intrauterine hypoxia was shown to be a powerful damaging factor and leads to delayed gonadal development. Histological examination of testicular tissue showed a significant reduction in the number of tubular cells per vision field, a decrease in tubular diameter and area, with the simultaneously increased area of the stroma and a larger number of vessels. Immunohistochemical study revealed the pronounced cytoplasmic expression of VEGF in testicular tissue in different gestation periods in the spermatogenic epitheliocytes, vessels, Leydig interstitial cells, while the maximal expression of this receptor was observed at 19-25 weeks' gestation, the degree of expression decreased at 26-29 weeks' gestation.

CONCLUSION

Intrauterine hypoxia has a destabilizing effect on the processes of proliferation and differentiation of the spermatogenic epithelium, interstitial endocrinocytes, activates the processes of angiogenesis and the growth of connective tissue. All this can involve not only gonadal dysgenesis, but also future reproductive dysfunction. Hypoxia stimulates the expression of VEGF, whose receptors are present in almost all testicular cell populations. It can be assumed that VEGF can act as a paracrine regulator of Leydig cell activity, also as an inducer of angiogenesis, and thus play a certain role in the development of male fertility.