Stereological and ultrastructural study of seminiferous tubules in normal testes and in patients with varicocele

ABSTRACT

Testicular biopsies from fertile men and patients with varicocele were evaluated and examined by using the recent stereological technique and electron microscope. This study quantitated the seminiferous epithelium using the stereological methods. The numerical density of the germ cells was generally reduced in patients with varicocele when compared with that in the normal fertile men. However such reduction was not associated with a similar change in the supporting Sertoli cells. Moreover, the different ratios between various germ cells and Sertoli cells were statistically reduced in varicocele group. The seminiferous tubules were examined by light and electron microscope. The tissue architecture of the tubules in varicocele patients ranged from mild to severely altered. In affected tubules, spermatid nuclear and acrosomal morpology was abnormal. Sloughing of the individual germ cells as well as the vacuolization and degeneration of the Sertoli cell cytoplasm were evindent. Furthermore, Sertoli-spermatid junctional complexes appeared to be structurally abnormal, whereas Sertoli-Sertoli junctional cornplexes appeared to be structurally intact. On the basis of the results in this work, the Sertoli cell is, in fact, the primary intratubular site of alteration in varicocele patients leading secondarily to sloughing and spermatogenic disruption