Fine structure of monkey (Macaca mulatta) Sertoli cells after treatment with cyproterone

Cellular relationship impairment in maturation arrest of human spermatogenesis: an ultrastructural study

Ultrastructural examination of testicular biopsies from cases of maturation arrest showed that there were characteristic abnormalities of the Sertoli cell junctional connections. These abnormalities together with the meiotic failure afford an explanation for the severe oligospermia or azoospermia noted in patients with maturation arrest. Premature setting up of ectoplasmic specializations in front of early spermatids and/or spermatocytes were also observed.

The blood-testis barrier in men with varicocele: a lanthanum tracer study

Testicular biopsy specimens were obtained from 28 otherwise healthy males (22 to 37 years old) with diagnosed varicocele. Tissue was processed for ultrastructural and intercellular tracer studies using lanthanum nitrate. In all cases Sertoli-Sertoli junctional complexes appeared structurally intact and functionally normal on the basis of their ability to occlude lanthanum from the adluminal testicular compartment. Our results indicate that, even in the presence of severe dissolution of the adluminal testicular compartment as evidenced in varicocele, both the basal compartment and the blood-testis barrier remain relatively normal. In varicocele, not only does the blood-testis barrier remain effective in segregating the two testicular compartments, but it appears to act as a device that limits the progression of apical Sertoli cell cytoplasmic degeneration and seminiferous epithelial dissolution, thereby allowing a pool of progenitor germ cells to be maintained and protected in the basal compartment.

Ultrastructural changes of the intercellular relationship in impaired human spermatogenesis

In seven hypo- or aspermic patients, electron microscopic investigations of the intercellular connections of the seminiferous tubule were performed. The analysis of cell junctions of Sertoli cells and germ cells revealed irregularities of the Sertoli-cell junctions, hypoplasias of occluding junctions, hypo- and hyperplasias of the Sertoli-spermatid cell junctions and abnormal formation of Sertoli cell junctions with early spermatids, spermatocytes, and spermatogonia. Gap junction-like cell membrane specializations were very rare. Intercellular cytoplasmic bridges of germ cells were always present together with these cells. One hypoplastic bridge connecting two spermatogonia was found. The results allow a preliminary classification of impaired spermtogenesia. The changes of intercellular connections might disturb the blood-testis barrier as well as the intercellular communication in the seminiferous tubule. Evidence is available to support the suggestion that genetic causes play a considerable role in the etiology of the germ cell aplasia and the spermatogenic maturation arrest.