Macrophages and Leydig Cells in Testicular Biopsies of Azoospermic Men
Figure 5
Testosterone expression in situ. (a) Control biopsy. Larger or smaller groups of Leydig cells are positive to testosterone (encircled areas) (St, seminiferous tubules). (b) Testosterone expression, details of the previous figure. A strong signal is present both in peritubular (Pt) as well as perivascular Leydig cells (Pv) (St, seminiferous tubules; bv, blood vessels). (c) NOA, testicular biopsy with tubular sclerosis (★) and intensive vacuolisation of Leydig cells. An irregular expression of testosterone (→) is notable (St, seminiferous tubule). (d) NOA, higher magnification. Some Leydig cells demonstrate highly scattered and irregular positive signal (→); in contrast, few of them possess normal or very strong signal (encircled cells) (★, fibrosed tubules, the so-called “tubular shadows”) (3,3′-diaminobenzidine (DAB), hemalaun counterstain, ×200, scale bar = 100 μm/(a), (c)/; ×400, scale bar = 50 μm/(b), (d)/).
