| Summary |
Forty male CD-I mice were used in this study in an attempt to find an acceptable animal model for subsequent studies of vasectomy and exercise. This thesis was concerned with the following treatments; execise nonvasectomized, exercised vasectomized, sedentary vasectomized, and sedentary non-vasectomized. The parameters examined in this study were; body weight changes over time, body densities, wet and dry weights of accessory sex glands, wet and dry weights of testes, and endogenous testosterone levels. This study was conducted with a two-factor random complete block design. Ten litters of mice with four male littermates randomly assigned to each treatment combination constituted the ten blocks. All parameters were examined at the 0.05 significance level and significance was tested using Tukey's test for contrasts of means. The F test was used max with the data of all parameters and they were determined to not be heterogeneous at the 0.05 level. One significant result of this study was there were no deaths of the mice until the designated time at the end of the study (12 weeks). There was no significance treatment or block effect apparent for body weights or body densities. Wet weights of accessory sex glands showed a significant treatment effect. The exercised non-vasectomized treatment group was significantly different from the vasectomized sedentary and the non-vasectomized sedentary treatment groups. The vasectomized exercised treatment was not significantly different from any of the other treatment groups. There was no significant treatment or block effect for dry weights of accessory sex glands. Wet and dry weights of right and left testes did not show a significant treatment or block effect and the testes were not significantly different among individuals. The analysis of variance of testosterone done with the entire data set and without regard to the time sampled did not have a significant treatment or block effect. When the data for the first 90 minutes samples (N=12) were examined there was a significant treatment effect and block effect. All treatment combinations' means were determined significantly different with Tukey's test except the vasectomized sedentary treatment compared with the sedentary control. Exercise stimulated increased secretion of the accessory sex glands which is believed to be an anabolic effect of testosterone. The data for the radioimmunoassay of testosterone were inconclusive because of variation within treatments. Vasectomy did not appear to have any significant effects on testosterone or its androgenic effect as determined with the bioassay of accessory sex glands. |
| General note | "Presented to the faculty of the Department of Biology ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Biology." |
| General note | Advisor: Everett C. Simpson |
| Dissertation note | M.S. East Carolina University 1986 |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-67). |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Thèses et écrits académiques. |
