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In the Adult Male Rhesus Monkey (Macaca mulatta), Unilateral Orchidectomy in the Face of Unchanging Gonadotropin Stimulation Results in Partial Compensation of Testosterone Secretion by the Remaining Testis

Departments of Cell Biology and Physiology (D.R.S., S.R., T.M.P.) and Medicine (G.R.M.), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Tony M. Plant, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Pittsburgh, S-828A Scaife Hall, 3550 Terrace Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261. E-mail: plant1{at}pitt.edu.

This study examined, in adult monkeys, the role that gonadotropin-independent mechanisms play in compensation of testosterone (T) secretion by the testis that remains after unilateral orchidectomy (UO). We employed a model (testicular clamp), in which endogenous gonadotropin secretion was abolished with a GnRH receptor antagonist, and the gonadotropin drive to the testes was concomitantly replaced with an invariant iv pulsatile infusion of recombinant human LH and FSH (1-min pulse every 2.5 h: LH, 0.08–0.12 IU/kg·pulse; FSH, 0.12–0.32 IU/kg·pulse) that provided the Leydig cells with a physiological stimulus. Within 5 h of UO (n = 5), circulating T concentrations had declined to 43% of pre-UO levels. By d 4, however, loss of the first testis was partially compensated, as reflected by the finding that circulating T had reached a plateau of 67% of the pre-UO level, where it remained for the duration of the study (39 d). That the recovery in circulating T was the result of increased T secretion by the remaining testis was suggested by the finding that the pulsatile pattern and decay of T during the intergonadotropin pulse interval before and after UO were indistinguishable. Interestingly, inhibin B production by the remaining testis also showed a delayed, albeit, minor, compensation (13% on d 10–11; P > 0.05) after loss of the first testis. These results suggest that compensation in T production by the remaining testis after UO in adult monkeys may be achieved in part by a gonadotropin-independent mechanism that probably involves direct neural inputs to the primate testis.

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