Table I.

The number of the different cells of germinal epithelium and morphometric analysis of epididymis of the control and sodium metabisulfite treated groups

	Control	S10	S100	S260
Spermatogonia	85.38 ±1.98	82.97 ±2.12	57.50 ±0.72**	60.25 ±2.96**
Spermatocyte	119.91 ±7.84	110.95 ±4.58	73.16 ±7.15**	75.16 ±2.51**
Spermatid	187.05 ±6.54	186.66 ±6.53	118.88 ±9.27**	115.80 ±10.43**
Sertoli cells	20.76 ±1.62	25.83 ±3.38	20.91 ±1.76	21.38 ±1.20
Leydig cells	40.02 ±1.47	38.58 ±1.34	29.64 ±1.82**	26.97 ±2.19**
Epididymal morphometry
Tubular diameter (µm) Epithelium height (µm)	186.83 ±11.79 10.20 ±0.60	184.03 ±12.57 9.99 ±0.54	159.04 ±14.72 6.66 ±0.52*	128.32 ±14.33* 5.25 ±0.51***

Each value indicates the mean ± SEM. S10, administration of 10 mg/kg/day SMB, S100, administration of 100 mg/kg/day SMB; S260, administration of 260 mg/kg/day SMB.

^*p<0.05,

^**p<0.01,

^***p<0.001 vs. the control group.