Immunological and ultrastructural study of the surface of isolated rat testis germinal cells.

In the present study, cross absorption tests and indirect immunofluorescence detected antigenic differences between isolated testicular cell populations from 21 and 38 day old rats, respectively. Qualitatively, spermatids were the only cell type difference between these populations. Spermatozoa from adult rats were also studied. Our findings suggest that spermatocytes, spermatids and spermatozoa shared on or more antigens; spermatids and spermatozoa seemed to share one or more antigens not observed in spermatocytes by indirect immunofluorescence. Various patterns of immunofluorescence were encountered, suggesting differences in amount and distribution of antigens among the cells studied. The supramolecular appearance of the surface of spermatocyte enriched populations and of spermatid enriched populations were compared by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and no striking difference was observed between both cell populations.