Franke W W, Grund C, Schmid E
Eur J Cell Biol. 1979 Aug;19(3):269-75.
The cytoplasmic structure of Sertoli cells of rat testes has been studied by electron microscopy of ultrathin sections. Sertoli cells contain numerous intermediate-sized (7-11 nm) filaments which form a meshwork extending throughout the whole cytoplasm. Often the frequency of such filaments appears especially high in juxtanuclear and cortical regions, including the apical recesses containing the spermatids. Examination of frozen sections of testes by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy using guinea pig antibodies to prekeratin and vimentin has shown the absence of intermediate-sized filaments of the cytokeratin type in all cells of the testes but the presence of filaments of the vimentin type in Sertoli cells as well as in cells of the interstitial space. These results show that the intermediate-sized filaments, abundant in Sertoli cells, are of the vimentin type. In addition we conclude that the "germ epithelium" differs from others true epithelia by the absence of cytokeratin filaments and typical desmosomes and, in Sertoli cells, the presence of vimentin filaments, suggestive of a mesenchymal character or derivation.
通过超薄切片的电子显微镜观察，对大鼠睾丸支持细胞的细胞质结构进行了研究。支持细胞含有大量中等大小（7 - 11纳米）的细丝，这些细丝形成一个遍布整个细胞质的网络。通常，这种细丝的频率在近核和皮质区域，包括含有精子细胞的顶端凹陷处显得特别高。使用豚鼠抗前角蛋白和波形蛋白抗体，通过间接免疫荧光显微镜检查睾丸冰冻切片，结果显示，除支持细胞以及间质细胞中的波形蛋白类型细丝外，睾丸所有细胞中均不存在细胞角蛋白类型的中等大小细丝。这些结果表明，支持细胞中丰富的中等大小细丝属于波形蛋白类型。此外，我们得出结论，“生殖上皮”与其他真正的上皮不同，缺乏细胞角蛋白细丝和典型的桥粒，并且在支持细胞中存在波形蛋白细丝，这表明其具有间充质特征或起源。
