University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg Museum of Medical History, Hamburg, Germany.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1122:235-267. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-11093-2_13.
The pericytes of the testis are part of the omnipresent population of pericytes in the vertebrate body and are the only true pluripotent adult stem cells able to produce structures typical for the tree primitive germ layers: ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. They originate very early in the embryogenesis from the pluripotent epiblast. The pericytes become disseminated through the whole vertebrate organism by the growing and differentiating blood vessels where they remain in specialized periendothelial vascular niches as resting pluripotent adult stem cells for tissue generation, maintenance, repair, and regeneration. The pericytes are also the ancestors of the perivascular multipotent stromal cells (MSCs). The variable appearance of the pericytes and their progeny reflects the plasticity under the influence of their own epigenetic and the local environmental factors of the host organ. In the testis the pericytes are the ancestors of the neuroendocrine Leydig cells. After activation the pericytes start to proliferate, migrate, and build transit-amplifying cells that transdifferentiate into multipotent stromal cells. These represent progenitors for a number of different cell types in an organ. Finally, it becomes evident that the pericytes are a brilliant achievement of the biological nature aiming to supply every organ with an omnipresent population of pluripotent adult stem cells. Their fascinating features are prerequisites for future therapy concepts supporting cell systems of organs.
睾丸中的周细胞是脊椎动物体内普遍存在的周细胞群体的一部分，是唯一真正的多能成体干细胞，能够产生具有三个原始胚层特征的结构：外胚层、中胚层和内胚层。它们在胚胎发生的早期起源于多能的外胚层。周细胞通过生长和分化的血管散布在整个脊椎动物体内，在那里它们作为静止的多能成体干细胞保留在专门的血管周细胞龛中，用于组织生成、维持、修复和再生。周细胞也是血管周围多能基质细胞（MSCs）的祖先。周细胞及其后代的多变外观反映了它们自身表观遗传和宿主器官局部环境因素的影响下的可塑性。在睾丸中，周细胞是神经内分泌莱迪希细胞的祖先。周细胞被激活后开始增殖、迁移，并构建过渡扩增细胞，这些细胞会转分化为多能基质细胞。这些细胞代表器官中多种不同细胞类型的前体细胞。最后，很明显，周细胞是生物性质的杰出成就，旨在为每个器官提供普遍存在的多能成体干细胞群体。它们迷人的特征是支持器官细胞系统的未来治疗概念的前提。
