Mayerhofer Artur, Walenta Lena, Mayer Christine, Eubler Katja, Welter Harald
Anatomy III - Cell Biology, Biomedical Center Munich, LMU München, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.
Andrologia. 2018 Dec;50(11):e13055. doi: 10.1111/and.13055.
In man, the wall of seminiferous tubules forms a testicular compartment, which contains several layers of smooth muscle-like, "myoid", peritubular cells and extracellular matrix. Its architecture and its cellular composition change in male infertility associated with impaired spermatogenesis. Increased deposits of extracellular matrix, changes in the smooth muscle-like phenotype of peritubular cells and accumulation of immune cells, especially mast cells, are among the striking alterations. Taken together, the changes indicate that inflammatory events take place in particular within this compartment. This short review summarises recent studies, which pinpoint possible mechanisms of the interplay between peritubular cells and mast cells, which may contribute to sterile inflammation and impairments of testicular function. These insights are based mainly on cellular studies, for which we used isolated human testicular peritubular cells (HTPCs), and on the examination of human testicular sections. Recent data on immunological properties of peritubular cells, unexpected roles of the extracellular matrix factor, biglycan, which is secreted by peritubular cells and functions of mast cell products (chymase, tryptase and ATP) are presented. We believe that the results may foster a better understanding of peritubular cells, their roles in the human testis and specifically their involvement in infertility.
在人类中，生精小管壁形成一个睾丸腔室，其中包含几层平滑肌样的“肌样”管周细胞和细胞外基质。在与精子发生受损相关的男性不育症中，其结构和细胞组成会发生变化。细胞外基质沉积增加、管周细胞平滑肌样表型改变以及免疫细胞尤其是肥大细胞的积聚，都是显著的变化。综合来看，这些变化表明炎症事件尤其在这个腔室内发生。这篇简短的综述总结了近期的研究，这些研究指出了管周细胞与肥大细胞之间相互作用的可能机制，这可能导致无菌性炎症和睾丸功能受损。这些见解主要基于细胞研究，我们使用了分离的人类睾丸管周细胞（HTPCs）进行细胞研究，并对人类睾丸切片进行了检查。文中呈现了关于管周细胞免疫特性的最新数据、管周细胞分泌的细胞外基质因子双糖链蛋白聚糖的意外作用以及肥大细胞产物（糜酶、组织蛋白酶和三磷酸腺苷）的功能。我们相信这些结果可能有助于更好地理解管周细胞、它们在人类睾丸中的作用，特别是它们在不育症中的参与情况。
