ABSTRACT
In order to elucidate the ultrastructural changes of human spermatozoa afteradministration of gossypol acetate 40 mg/day for 50 days,freeze-replica techniqueswere employed.In addition to the ordinary changes of spermatozoa,such as swelling,wasting,atrophy,tortuosity,nodulation in the head and/or tail region and fracture betweenhead and tail,the internal structure,biomembrane and intramembranous particles ofsperm also showed relatively more sensitive changes.The changes of biomembranerevealed certain shift in regard to the firmness of reciprocating attachment of inner-and outer-leaflets of the unit membrane.On the other hand,the changes of intra-membranous particles revealed a specialized arrangement,this is,on the plasmamembrane of head and tail they were concentrated into lattice work,whereas,in thehind-head region they accumulated as clusters.In the hind-acrosomal membranetwo types of particles,large and small,may be distinguished,the smaller ones werearranged orderly in lines of all directions.As for the nuclear pores,no changewas found in this study.It is considered that the influences of gossypol upon human spermatozoa,firstof all,were shown in the biomembrane and intramembranous particles,and theordinary changes in appearance were the secondary result.In the discussion,it'ssuggested that a special agent,gossypol receptor,responsible for the gossypol effectsto the sperm,may be present in the plasma membrane of the spermatozoa.
ABSTRACT
The epithelial cells of normal human epididymis were studied by ultrathin section and freeze-etching replica techniques. It was found that the pseudostratified epithelium is composed mainly of dark-columnar, clear-columnar, ciliated, basal and few narrow-columnar cells. The ultrastructure of the epithelia from the head region to the tail of the epdidymis reveals no distinctive segmental demarcation, but transits gradually. The ciliated cells distributed chiefly in the initial segment of epididymis, fibril-like elements were found frequently in the supranuclear region of its cytoplasm, yet their function remains unknown. The dark-columnar cells as well as the clearcolumnar and the cillated cells of the head region of the epididymis exhibit the cytological ultrastructural characteristic features of absorption as is often the case with endocytotic vesicles and lysosomes, etc. These morphologycal findings confirm the view that these cells, particularly the dark-columnar cell, appear to be responsible to the absorption of testicular secretion in the epididymis. The clear-columnar and the dark-columnar cells, especially the former, in the distal portion of the epididymis possesses the secretory cytological characterestics. It is suggested that these cells were concerned with the production of the epididymis semen.In the discussion, the authors pointed out that the scientific basis for the detailed functions of the epididymis remains to be investigated further.