Chakraborty J, Sinha Hikim A P, Jhunjhunwala J
Acta Anat (Basel). 1985;124(3-4):234-40. doi: 10.1159/000146122.
Torsion of the spermatic cord is not an extremely rare occurrence among prepubertal and adolescent boys. Although it is known that torsion of the spermatic cord may lead to germ cell degeneration in the affected as well as in the contralateral testis, nothing is known regarding the response of sustentacular cells to this condition. During the present investigation, we studied the effect of experimental torsion on the sustentacular cells of guinea pig testes. Light-microscopic examination revealed that, although all types of germ cells, except a few spermatogonia, were degenerated in the guinea pig testes with torsion, sustentacular cells did not degenerate. This observation was confirmed from the quantitation data which indicated that the number of these cells remained unchanged when compared to the control and/or the contralateral testis of the same animal with unilateral torsion. Therefore, sustentacular cells of the damaged testis from guinea pigs can be used as reference cells for germ cell quantitation. The striking ultrastructural change in the sustentacular cells of damaged testes was characterized by the presence of well-developed annulate lamellae, which was not reported before in any other rodent species. Lobulated nuclei, numerous tight junctional complexes and lysosomes were other characteristic features of the sustentacular cells of damaged testes.
精索扭转在青春期前和青春期男孩中并非极为罕见。虽然已知精索扭转可能导致患侧以及对侧睾丸中的生殖细胞退化，但关于支持细胞对这种情况的反应却一无所知。在本研究中，我们研究了实验性扭转对豚鼠睾丸支持细胞的影响。光镜检查显示，尽管除少数精原细胞外，豚鼠扭转睾丸中的所有类型生殖细胞均已退化，但支持细胞并未退化。这一观察结果从定量数据中得到证实，该数据表明与同一动物单侧扭转的对照和/或对侧睾丸相比，这些细胞的数量保持不变。因此，豚鼠受损睾丸的支持细胞可作为生殖细胞定量的参照细胞。受损睾丸支持细胞显著的超微结构变化特征是存在发育良好的环状片层，这在其他啮齿动物物种中此前未见报道。分叶核、大量紧密连接复合体和溶酶体是受损睾丸支持细胞的其他特征。
