Testicle

The testicles, known medically as testes (singular testis), are the male generative glands in animals. Male mammals have two testicles, which are often contained within an extension of the abdomen called the scrotum.

Structure

Under a tough fibrous shell, the tunica albuginea, the testis contains very fine coiled tubes called the seminiferous tubules. The tubes are lined with a layer of cells that, from puberty into old-age, produce sperm cells. The seminiferous tubules lead to the epididymis, where newly created sperm cells mature, and then into vas deferens (also called the ductus deferens) which opens into the urethra. Upon any sufficient sexual arousal, the sperm cells move through the ejaculatory duct and into the prostatic urethra, where the prostate, through muscular contractions, ejaculates the sperm, mixed with other fluids, out through the penis. (The genital anatomy described here, along with the neuroanatomy and hormonal systems that enable it to perform ejaculation, have as primary evolutionary functions the impregnation of a fertile female of the same species (or a sufficiently close one), via sexual intercourse with her.)

Related Topics:
Puberty - Epididymis - Ductus deferens - Urethra - Sexual arousal - Ejaculatory duct - Prostate - Penis - Impregnation - Species - Sexual intercourse

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Between the seminiferous tubules are special cells called interstitial cells

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(Leydig cells) where testosterone and other androgens are

Related Topics:
Testosterone - Androgens

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

formed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~