engleski

Reinke's crystals in cryptorchid testicles of men after puberty

REINKE'S CRYSTALS IN CRYPTORCHID TESTICLES OF MEN AFTER PUBERTY Viviana Kozina, Ljerka Banek, Tomislav Banek*, Davor Ježek University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Department of Histology and Embryology *Department for Nuclear Medicine, KB Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia Introduction & aim: Human testicles are composed of two basic components: seminiferous tubules and interstitium.The interstitium is composed of loose connective tissue with Leydig (interstitial) cells. Special feature of interstitial cells are Reinke's crystals located in the cytoplasm and/or nuclei of these cells. The crystals can be occasionally found outside the cells, within the interstitium space.. This crystals are made of 10 nm thick protein filaments. It's been noticed that number of this crystals is increased in infertile men. Our aim was to determine the number of crystals in control and cryptorchid testes. Materials and methods: Our study included 20 testicular biopsies obtained by an "open biopsy" method from patients with cryptorchidism, ages from 17 to 27 y. As control group we used 6 control specimens, 20 to 30 years old, with complete spermatogenesis. After fixation in Gendre, tissue samples were dehydrated and embedded in paraffin. 7 µ ; m thick sections were made by a rotary microtome and stained with hemalaun eosin and modified Masson's method. Numerical density of Reinke's crystals was measured by the light microscope Nikon with integrated Weibel's test system. Results and conclusion: Results show significant increase in number of crystals in men with cryptorchidism compared with controls. In order to clarify the reasons of this increase further analyses of the origin and nature of the Reinke's crystals structure are necessary.

human testicles; cryptorchidism; Reinke's crystals

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