Is there a relationship between physical performance and orchiectomy?

Bilateral orchiectomy is indicated for the treatment of patients with testicular cancer or advanced prostate tumours. The influence of hypogonadism on physical performance is still not known. The purpose of this work was to verify the effect of bilateral orchiectomy on physical performance. Sixteen rats were divided into two groups: Group 1 (Control), in which only skin incision and suture were made (n = 5) and Group 2, in which the rats were submitted to bilateral orchiectomy (n = 11). The animals ran on a treadmill at the speed of 20 m min(-1) until they were fatigued and felt once, during 10 s, when the experiment was interrupted. Time to running and weight of animals were verified. The results were compared using the Mann-Whitney test. There was no difference on time to running - minutes - (P = 0.14) and weight - grams - (P = 0.25) between the animals submitted to orchiectomy (100 ± 44 min and 359 ± 38 g) and the control Group (81 ± 40 min to run and 327 ± 25 g). Bilateral orchiectomy does not affect the physical performance of the rat.

Hypoandrogenism related to early skin wound healing resistance in rats.

The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of testosterone depletion on healing of surgical skin wounds at different ages and post-operative periods. Forty-four Wistar male rats were divided into four groups: Group 1Y (n = 11) - young control, sham-operated rats (30-day old); Group 1A (n = 10) - adult control, sham-operated rats (3 to 4-month old); Group 2Y (n = 10) - young rats after bilateral orchiectomy; and Group 2A (n = 11) - adult rats after bilateral orchiectomy. After 6 months, a linear incision was performed on the dorsal region of the animals. The resistance of the wound healing was measured in a skin fragment using a tensiometer, on the 7th and 21st post-operative days. The wound healing resistance was higher in Group 1Y than in Group 2Y after 7 days (P < 0.05). Wound healing resistance at 21 days was higher than at 7 days in all groups (P < 0.05). Late wound healing resistance was not different between young and adult rats. It is concluded that bilateral orchiectomy diminished the wound healing resistance only in young animals at the 7th post-operative day.