Mesa Hector, Gilles Scott, Smith Sophia, Dachel Susan, Larson Wendy, Manivel J Carlos
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Veterans Administration Health Care Service, Minneapolis, MN 55417.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455.
Hum Pathol. 2015 Apr;46(4):600-6. doi: 10.1016/j.humpath.2015.01.004. Epub 2015 Jan 15.
Reinke crystals (RC) are pathognomonic of Leydig cells (LCs); they are thought to be rare in normal testes and to occur only in approximately one third of LC tumors. We noticed that crystals present in touch imprint and frozen sections of an LC tumor disappeared after tissue fixation. This phenomenon led us to hypothesize that their reported low frequency in normal and neoplastic LCs may be secondary to degradation/dissolution of the crystals after formalin fixation. Our review of the literature also led us to hypothesize that RC are better preserved after air-drying and alcohol fixation. We collected testicular samples from 21 autopsies including air-dried cytologic preparations and tissue samples that were fixed in alcohol or formalin. We found that RC are common in normal LC but dissolve rapidly in formalin and slowly and only partially in alcohol. The composition of RC is unknown; however, they have been reported to stain specifically for nestin, an intermediate filament expressed mainly in neural and muscle tissue. Because the crystals have only been described in androgen-producing cells, we hypothesized that the crystals may represent a crystallized form of androgenic hormones, hormone complexes, or enzymes involved in their synthesis. We performed immunostains for androgens and enzymes involved in androgenesis. We also performed nestin immunostain to confirm the previous study. The crystals stain specifically with antibodies anti-3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and are negative for the remaining androgenic enzymes, androgenic hormones, and nestin.
赖克结晶（RC）是睾丸间质细胞（LCs）的特征性表现；它们在正常睾丸中被认为很罕见，仅在约三分之一的LC肿瘤中出现。我们注意到，LC肿瘤的触摸印片和冰冻切片中存在的结晶在组织固定后消失了。这一现象使我们推测，它们在正常和肿瘤性LC中报道的低频率可能是由于福尔马林固定后结晶降解/溶解所致。我们对文献的回顾还使我们推测，空气干燥和酒精固定后RC能得到更好的保存。我们从21例尸检中收集了睾丸样本，包括空气干燥的细胞学制剂以及用酒精或福尔马林固定的组织样本。我们发现RC在正常LC中很常见，但在福尔马林中迅速溶解，在酒精中溶解缓慢且仅部分溶解。RC的成分尚不清楚；然而，据报道它们对巢蛋白有特异性染色，巢蛋白是一种主要在神经和肌肉组织中表达的中间丝。因为这些结晶仅在产生雄激素的细胞中被描述过，我们推测这些结晶可能代表雄激素、激素复合物或参与其合成的酶的结晶形式。我们对雄激素和参与雄激素生成的酶进行了免疫染色。我们还进行了巢蛋白免疫染色以证实先前的研究。这些结晶与抗3β - 羟基类固醇脱氢酶抗体特异性染色，而对其余雄激素酶、雄激素激素和巢蛋白呈阴性。
