SEM surface morphology of the contractile cells in the rat seminiferous tubules

Abstract

The SEM observation of the basal surface of the contractile cells in the boundary tissue of the seminiferous tubule of the rat revealed that the contractile cells are extremely flat, vary in shape from rectangular to hexagonal, and are arranged close to each other, in the fashion of a tiled floor, around the seminiferous epithelium.

Scanning Electron Microscopy of Mechanically Isolated Seminiferous Tubules of the Rat Testis

“…In these pictures it is seen that the outer surface of the tubules is formed by the thin processes of the lymphatic endothelial cells and that these cell processes clearly lie outside the single layer of myoid cells. Furthermore the scanning electron This study shows that the seminiferous tubules are surrounded by the lymphatic endoandrologia 13 (1981) .lndrologia 13 (1981) microscopic picture of the lymphatic endothelial cells is different from that which has described as representing the myoid cells (Tung et al -1975;Murakami et al -1979).…”

“…Scanning electron microscopy has been employed in several studies to observe structures within the tubules of the dog (Connell -1975(Connell - ,1976, monkey (Flechon and Hafez -1975), rat (Clark -1976;Eddy and Kahri -1976) hamster (Gravis -1977) and horse (Johnson et al -1978). Also the myoid cells have been studied with scanning electron microscopy using collagenase treated seminiferous tubules (Tung et al -1975;Murakami et al -1979) but no scanning electron microscopic studies of mechanically isolated seminiferous tubules have been done.…”