Testicular changes in mice after treatment with mitomycin C

Male mice from the BALB/c strain, 11-13 weeks old, received an i.p. injection of 5 mg/kg of mitomycin C dissolved in 0.5 ml distilled water. Following injection, four mice were killed on days 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 50 and 100. Testicular damage was estimated by analyzing the incidence of the germinal cell types (spermatogonia, spermatocytes, spermatids and spermatozoa) in the median cross sections of tubules at the various periods post-injection. Comparison between the present results and estimation, made by the same technique, of the histological damaes induced in mosue testes by ionizing radiations shows that injection of 5 mg/kg of mitomycin C has the same effect as exposure to about 1000 R of X-irradiation.