COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS OF RETE TESTIS FLUID FROM MACAQUE MONKEYS

Abstract

Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, The University, Reading RG6 2AJ, and The Population Council, The Rockefeller University, York Avenue and 66th Street, New York, NY. 10021, U.S.A. (Received 6th September 1974) Testicular spermatozoa are transported from the testis through the ductuli efferentes into the caput epididymidis in rete testis fluid (RTF). This fluid was first collected for analysis from conscious rams (Voglmayr, Waites & Setchell, 1966) and then from conscious bulls (Voglmayr, Larson & White, 1970) and anaesthetized wallabies (Setchell, 1970) by cannulation of the extratesticular rete through the ductuli efferentes. Rete testis fluid was then obtained from anaesthetized rats by inserting a side-hole catheter into the rete testis, 12 to 24 hr after ligating the ductuli efferentes (Tuck, Setchell, Waites & Young, 1970). Tuck et al. (1970) suggested that RTF is a mixture of two fluids; one, a highpotassium, low-protein fluid secreted in the seminiferous tubules, and the other,