Contractile Cells in Human Seminiferous Tubules

Abstract

Electron microscopic study of the peritubular connective tissue in human testis reveals the presence of "contractile-type" cells rather than of typical fibrocytes. Their cytoplasm has numerous fine filaments and other components. characteristic of smooth muscle cells. The rough-surfaced endoplasmic reticulum, however, is relatively prominent In some instances, the nuclear surface appears scalloped or folded, and the cell surface presents an irregular profile, similar to that of contracted cells.

Transmission Electron Microscopy for the Quantitative Analysis of Testis Ultra Structure

“…These cells reside in the extracellular matrix among the fibrillary lamellar structures which, in the normal testis, are made of both collagen and laminin [3,4,5,8,9]. Myoid cells contain numerous actin, myosin and desmin filaments [10,11]. In contrast to tubules, which underwent sclerosis, they show an intense positive reaction for actin and desmin but only focal positive reaction for vimentin [12,13].…”

Peritubular Myoid Cells in the Testis: Their Structure and Function.

“…The cells are arranged close to each other in the fashion of a tiled floor around the tubule. In larger animals, such as the rabbit (CRABO, 1963;LEESON and FORMAN, 1981), ram (BUSTOS-OBREGON andCOUROT, 1974), bull (WROBEL et al, 1979) and in humans (Ross and LONG, 1966), myoid cells are arranged as more than one layer. Five to seven cellular layers, each separated by extracellular connective tissue, were found in the lamina propria of the human seminiferous tubule (BUSTOS-OBREGON and HOLSTEIN, 1973;BUSTOS-OBREGON, 1976;HOLSTEIN and ROOSEN-RUNGE, 1981).…”

Myofibroblasts in the Lamina Propria of Human Seminiferous Tubules are Dynamic Structures of Heterogeneous Phenotype.

“…The myoid nature of the cells of the lamina propria of the guinea pig, rat and human seminif erous tubules was earlier proved (GROSCHEL-STEWARD and UNSICKER, 1977;VIRTANEN et al, 1986;SKALLI et al, 1986;BENZONANA et al, 1988). The electron microscopic study by ROSS and LONG (1966) It was shown that these cells co-express smooth muscle cell-and connective tissue cell-antigens (DAVIDOFF et al, 1990). KOHNEN et al (1995) reported that, in human myofibroblasts, in addition to vimentin and desmin, a-smooth muscle actin and GB-42 immunoreactivity could be established.…”