DocumentCode
406883
Title
Fractality and complexity of the morpho-functional thermoregulation of the human testes
Author
Tritto, J. ; North, M.-O.
Author_Institution
Unit of Clinical Andrology, Saint-Louis Hosp., Paris, France
Volume
3
fYear
2003
fDate
17-21 Sept. 2003
Firstpage
2307
Abstract
Thermoregulation of the human testes is a fundamental mechanism to protect the normal evolving of the spermatogenetic process and to store at specific temperature the definitive DNA carried on by the final spermatozoa. Impairment of this complex mechanism increases the core temperature of the testes, disrupts the uniform distribution of temperature into the testis and gives up an incremental differential gradient into the testis with impairment of the spermatogenetic process and increase of the apoptotic events at the differential steps of spermatogenesis. Meiosis is a crucial event during spermatogenesis: this dynamic process of rearrangement of DNA material is very sensitive to thermic disregulation and genetic abnormalities occur with the appearance of apoptosis in this pachitene stage. The testis is a fractal organ, with a multifractal organization involving the internal microvascular network and the seminiferous tubules spermatogenetic patterns. On the other side the thermoregulatory process scaling from the microvascular compartment to the capillary network to the cellular energetic level implies the non-linear complexity of the dynamics of the morpho-functional parameters involved into. In the past studies three levels of the fractal scaling of the human testes are described. From recent studies two other levels can be introduced at the seminiferous tubules internal mapping of the spermatogenetic process and at the apoptotic process on the spermatogonia, spermatocytes and spermatids compartments. Recent studies demonstrate that specific thermoregulatory mechanisms are involved too in the maturation of oocytes in women and that the meiotic process on female gametes is thermosensitive too. The application of the multifractality approach to the interpretation of the structural organization of the human gonads on one side and the non-linear analyses of the complexity of the functional thermoregulatory mechanisms on a scaling process into the gonads reveal for the first time the sophistication of the control mechanisms of the basic processes of the human reproduction at the gonad levels, opening the route to new micro and nanotechnological procedures of intervention on these structures and of extraction of state informations on the time-space domain non-lin- ear approaches.
Keywords
DNA; biocontrol; biological organs; biothermics; cellular biophysics; fractals; molecular biophysics; DNA; apoptosis; fractality; human gonads; human testes; meiosis; microvascular network; seminiferous tubules; spermatogenetic process; spermatozoa; thermoregulation; Cellular networks; DNA; Fractals; Genetics; Humans; Information analysis; Protection; Temperature distribution; Temperature sensors; Testing;
fLanguage
English
Publisher
ieee
Conference_Titel
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2003. Proceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
ISSN
1094-687X
Print_ISBN
0-7803-7789-3
Type
conf
DOI
10.1109/IEMBS.2003.1280377
Filename
1280377
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