Correlation 15: Testicular atrophy

There is focal atrophy of tubules seen here to the upper right, compared with the normal tubules at the left and bottom.

A decrease in cell size is known as atrophy. The term is also applied to tissues and organs when they become smaller. The testis can be involved with atrophy. The most common reason for this is probably childhood infection with the mumps virus, which produces a patchy pattern of inflammation, affecting some seminiferous tubules but not others. Thus, it is unusual for this infection to cause enough atrophy to significantly affect the sperm count.