Current research in the United States, India, and England may lead to a new method of destroying spermatogenesis.
Prompted by the observations of Dr. J. Parizek in Czechoslovakia, these studies, developed thus far in animals, involve irreversible destruction of the seminiferous tubules and epithelium of the testes by administration of salts of the trace metal, cadmium chloride.
Sterilization is permanent, but the interstitium regenerates after initial atrophy allowing return of other hormone functions, a research team composed of Samuel A. Gunn, MD, Thelma Clark Gould, PhD, and W. A. D. Anderson, MD, of the Department of Pathology of the University of Miami ( Fla) School of Medicine, told The Journal.
Although the original studies on preventing spermatogenesis involved subcutaneous injection of the salt, in more recent experiments cadmium has been injected in minute doses intratesticularly, or applied to the scrotum in the form of an ointment.
Amiya B. Kar, MD, and