Schulze W, Schulze C
Cell Tissue Res. 1981;217(2):259-66. doi: 10.1007/BF00233579.
The present investigation documents morphological characteristics of human Sertoli cells of aged males. Testicular material was obtained from 35 patients (age 62-84 years) with carcinoma of the prostate who had received no previous anticancer therapy. As revealed by light and electron microscopy the appearance of the germinal epithelium showed great individual variations. In all cases examined, however, the occurrence of multinucleate Sertoli cells was a common finding. In seminiferous tubules with intact spermatogenesis these cells closely resembled the normally occurring variants, whereas they displayed features reminiscent of immaturity in the absence of germ cells. It is hypothesized that the nuclei of Sertoli cells in the special situation of aging may resume the capacity to divide, an ability normally restricted to immature cells. Thus, mitosis without subsequent cytokinesis might be an explanation for the formation of multinucleate Sertoli cells.
本研究记录了老年男性人类支持细胞的形态特征。睾丸组织取自35例（年龄62 - 84岁）前列腺癌患者，这些患者此前未接受过抗癌治疗。光镜和电镜检查显示，生精上皮的外观存在很大的个体差异。然而，在所有检查的病例中，多核支持细胞的出现是一个常见现象。在生精功能完整的生精小管中，这些细胞与正常出现的变体非常相似，而在没有生殖细胞的情况下，它们表现出不成熟的特征。据推测，在衰老这种特殊情况下，支持细胞的细胞核可能恢复分裂能力，而这种能力通常仅限于未成熟细胞。因此，无后续胞质分裂的有丝分裂可能是多核支持细胞形成的一种解释。
