Canadian Health&Care; Mall

The most striking aspect of the present study was the finding of large irregularly shaped translucent spaces situated between germ cells in the testis of FORKO mice. For a variety of reasons, it was concluded that these spaces within the epithelium were territories of the Sertoli cell cytoplasm that were highly dilated and filled with fluid. In appropriate planes of section, it was noted that the basal cytoplasm of Sertoli cells at times appeared intact, showing a nucleus and organelles embedded in a finely flocculent ground substance (Fig. 11). These intact areas were confluent with the highly dilated space that extended toward the lumen. The fact that such spaces were always delimited by a plasma membrane indicated that they were of cellular origin. Indeed, such spaces contained membranous profiles of varying sizes and organelles such as mitochondria, ER, and lysosomes characteristic of those normally found in Sertoli cells (Fig. 11). On no occasion were the membrane-bound dilated spaces continuous with the lumen. Furthermore, the epithelium and lumen of the efferent ducts appeared intact, as did that of the epididymis, suggesting that fluid was not backing up into the lumen of seminiferous tubules.