Wong T W, Strauss F H, Foster L V
Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, IL 60637.
Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1988 Feb;112(2):200-5.
The testicular biopsy specimens of two cases of Sertoli-cell-only syndrome are described, in which some of the Sertoli cells are filled with coarse cytoplasmic eosinophilic granules. Histochemical stains suggest that the granules contain glycocompounds and phospholipids. On electron microscopy, the granules prove to be densely populated secondary lysosomes, containing membrane fragments, phospholipid-like materials, and other amorphous masses of various densities. Whether the excessive secondary lysosomes arise as a result of some metabolic block in the Sertoli cells, or merely represent autophagy in response to the absence of germ cells, cannot be determined. A search of the literature indicates that this is the first instance, to our knowledge, in which such changes are reported in Sertoli-cell-only syndrome.
