Bar-Shira Maymon B, Paz G, Elliott D J, Hammel I, Kleiman S E, Yogev L, Hauser R, Botchan A, Yavetz H
Institute for the Study of Fertility, Lis Maternity Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel.
Hum Reprod. 2000 Jul;15(7):1537-42. doi: 10.1093/humrep/15.7.1537.
The involvement of Sertoli cells in different spermatogenic impairments has been studied by an immunohistomorphometric technique using cytokeratin-18 (CK-18) as a marker for immature Sertoli cells. CK-18 is known to be expressed in Sertoli cells during prenatal and prepubertal differentiation and is normally lost at puberty. Forty-nine azoospermic men were included in the current study. Quantitative measurements on testicular biopsies revealed the highest CK-18 expression in the mixed atrophy biopsies (22 men), a lower expression in the Sertoli cell-only (SCO) biopsies (12 men), and minimal residual staining in the group considered as representing normal spermatogenesis (six obstructive azoospermia patients). The cytokeratin immunopositive-stained tubules were associated either with arrest in spermatogenesis or with SCO. Examination of sections from nine men with microdeletions in the AZF region of the Y chromosome revealed that these men were either negative for CK-18 expression or showed only weak residual staining. This may suggest that the spermatogenic defect in the AZF-deleted men originates in the germ cell and has no impact on Sertoli cell maturation. The cause that determined the spermatogenic defect in the other cases of male infertility with high CK-18 expression may have damaged both the Sertoli and the germ cells.
利用细胞角蛋白-18（CK-18）作为未成熟支持细胞的标志物，通过免疫组织形态计量技术研究了支持细胞在不同生精障碍中的作用。已知CK-18在产前和青春期前分化期间在支持细胞中表达，并且在青春期通常会消失。本研究纳入了49名无精子症男性。对睾丸活检组织的定量测量显示，混合性萎缩活检组织（22名男性）中CK-18表达最高，唯支持细胞综合征（SCO）活检组织（12名男性）中表达较低，而被认为代表正常生精的组（6名梗阻性无精子症患者）中残留染色最少。细胞角蛋白免疫阳性染色的小管与生精停滞或SCO有关。对9名Y染色体AZF区域存在微缺失的男性的切片检查显示，这些男性要么CK-18表达阴性，要么仅显示微弱的残留染色。这可能表明，AZF缺失男性的生精缺陷起源于生殖细胞，对支持细胞成熟没有影响。在其他CK-18高表达的男性不育病例中，决定生精缺陷的原因可能同时损害了支持细胞和生殖细胞。
