Micro-Spoon Technique in Estimation of Sperm Concentration in Rat Epididymis

Abstract

Several technical procedures mere described for estimation of epididymal sperm concentration until today. In all of the described techniques, epididymal material was drawn into a micro-pipette before counting procedure. We aimed to proceed this stage without using any pipette because of the difficulty in aspirating very viscous epididymal material into a micro-pipette. For measuring epididymal material we used a 2 mu l reservoir which me named as a micro-spoon. It was filled with the epididymal material and layered in a tube with Ringer's solution of 2 mi containing sodium hyaluronate. Then, it was mixed in order to obtain 1/1000 diluted suspension. Sperm cells in this suspension were counted on a Makler chamber under a light microscope. The procedure was easy and time saving, compared to the other techniques. (C) 2000 Tohoku University Medical Press.