Male BALB/c mice aged 6–8 weeks and weighing 20–25 g were purchased from Shanghai Slack laboratory animal Co. Ltd. Animals were kept in Soochow University Animal Center under SPF (Specific Pathogen Free) conditions. Mice handling procedures were reviewed and approved by the Animal Care/User Ethics Committee of Soochow University, Suzhou City, P.R. China. The experimental procedures for all mice were performed in accordance with the Regulations for the Administration of Affairs Concerning Experimental Animals approved by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.
We used radiation to construct NOA animal models [9 (link)], 8 BALB/c male mice were randomly divided into control and irradiated (NOA) groups, and both two groups were sampled on the 21st day after irradiation. The NOA group was irradiated with whole-body 6-MV X-rays at a total dose of 0.5 Gy and a dose rate of 100 cGy/min using a Philips SL18 linear accelerator. The radiation procedure was performed daily with a total of 5 times. After the mice were euthanized, the abdominal cavity was cut open under a stereomicroscope (Olympus, Japan), and the testis and epididymis were carefully separated and photographed. In addition, the testis was weighed using an electronic balance (sartorius, Germany).
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