Ye S J, Ying L, Ghosh S, de França L R, Russell L D
Department of Physiology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Carbondale 62901-6512.
Anat Rec. 1993 Oct;237(2):187-98. doi: 10.1002/ar.1092370206.
Seminiferous tubules in mammals are composed of cell associations that show a cyclic pattern of renewal and development. The cyclic nature of germ cell development suggests that the cells supporting the spermatogenic process, the Sertoli cells, might also differ structurally during the spermatogenic cycle in terms of the quantity of their constituents. In the present study, cyclic differences in volumes, and surface areas were determined using a sampling technique at the electron microscope level that proportionally samples the Sertoli cell within the seminiferous tubule. Among the many parameters studied, only the surface area of the cell, the volume of lipid, and the volume and surface area of the rough endoplasm reticulum were shown by statistical analysis to vary cyclically. Regarding rough endoplasm reticulum, the volume and surface area of this organelle peaked at mid-cycle and its low was recorded near the end of the cycle, exhibiting an approximate 15-fold difference between extremes. The rough endoplasm reticulum parameters generally correlated with known patterns of protein secretion within the tubule and with the secretion of specific proteins as well as the factors important in controlling protein secretion. Many Sertoli cell structural parameters suggested to be influenced cyclically in the rat in other studies could not be confirmed by the present study. Methodological differences in the present study and past studies are discussed as potential sources of error for these discrepancies.
哺乳动物的生精小管由呈现周期性更新和发育模式的细胞组合构成。生殖细胞发育的周期性表明，支持精子发生过程的细胞，即支持细胞，在精子发生周期中其组成成分的数量在结构上可能也存在差异。在本研究中，通过一种在电子显微镜水平上对生精小管内支持细胞进行按比例采样的技术，测定了体积和表面积的周期性差异。在研究的众多参数中，经统计分析表明，只有细胞表面积、脂质体积以及粗面内质网的体积和表面积呈现周期性变化。关于粗面内质网，该细胞器的体积和表面积在周期中期达到峰值，在周期末期附近降至最低，极端值之间相差约15倍。粗面内质网参数通常与小管内已知的蛋白质分泌模式、特定蛋白质的分泌以及控制蛋白质分泌的重要因子相关。在其他研究中认为在大鼠体内受周期性影响的许多支持细胞结构参数，本研究未能证实。本文讨论了本研究与以往研究在方法上的差异，作为这些差异潜在的误差来源。
