[Mitochondrial reorganization after HCG stimulation of Leydig cells from hypophysectomized hogs].

One to three months after hypophysectomy, porcine Leydig cells contain numerous dense bodies surrounded by a single membrane and crowded with dense rods geometrically arranged. In organotypic culture with HCG they undergo a striking evolution which leads first to intermediate bodies looking like peroxysomes and then to mitochondrial structures. This evolution is quantitatively reduced in a medium without HCG.