caa a22 4500 469083824 CHVBK 20180323132959.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e19920901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00353893 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00353893 Prince Frederick Department of Natural Science, Plymouth State College, 03264, Plymouth, NH, USA aut Ultrastructural evidence of indirect and direct autonomic innervation of human Leydig cells: comparison of neonatal, childhood and pubertal ages [Elektronische Daten] [Frederick Prince] Summary: Recent physiological studies have indicated an autonomic influence on the secretion of testosterone from Leydig cells in humans and laboratory animals. Furthermore, a few studies have shown enhanced autonomic control of Leydig cell function in immature, relative to mature, laboratory animals. In the current ultrastructural study of the human testicular interstitium the morphology of autonomic components is described from neonatal, childhood and pubertal ages. Autonomic nerve fibers and varicosities with neurotransmitter vesicles are described in proximity to Leydig cells. The observed autonomic terminals are classified by vesicle morphology into three general types: (1) Type I with predominately small agranular vesicles (30-60 nm) and occasional larger granular vesicles (100 nm). This type is morphologically consistent with being cholinergic. (2) Type II with predominately small granular vesicles (30-60 nm), as well as sporadic large granular vesicles. These are morphologically consistent with adrenergic terminals. (3) Type III which exhibit numerous large granular vesicles of mixed size. Evidence of autonomic terminals is encountered most frequently in childhood biopsies, age 3 to 10 years. The neonatal specimen (4 months) is noteworthy in that many of the Schwann cells appear immature and no adrenergic terminals are observed. In contrast, terminals morphologically consistent with being adrenergic are common in the childhood series of biopsies. Although the vast majority of the autonomic terminals are associated with Leydig cells indirectly as "boutons en passant”, separated by approximately 150 nm to more than a μm, evidence of direct contact (20 nm) of autonomic terminals with Leydig cells is presented. These findings provide morphological evidence of frequent indirect and rare direct contact of autonomic nerve terminals with Leydig cells in man. Springer-Verlag, 1992 Autonomic innervation nationallicence Leydig cells nationallicence Man nationallicence Cell and Tissue Research Springer-Verlag 269/3(1992-09-01), 383-390 0302-766X 269:3<383 1992 269 441 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00353893 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00353893 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Prince Frederick Department of Natural Science, Plymouth State College, 03264, Plymouth, NH, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Cell and Tissue Research Springer-Verlag 269/3(1992-09-01), 383-390 0302-766X 269:3<383 1992 269 441 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer