Reinkea??s crystals inperivascular and peritubularLeydig cells of men with nonobstructiveand obstructiveazoospermia: a retrospectivecase-control study

摘要

Aim To analyze the differences in the population of perivascularand peritubular Leydig cells (LC) and the number ofReinkea??s crystals (RCs) in the testicles of infertile men withnon-obstructive and obstructive azoospermia.Methods This retrospective case-control study was conductedon the testicle tissue of infertile men with obstructive(n = 10) and those with non-obstructive azoospermia(n = 100). Stereological analysis was performed on 7-??mparaffin sections. Measurements were carried out by usingthe Weibel multipurpose test system.Results Patients with non-obstructive azoospermia hada higher total/absolute number of LCs in the perivascularspace (P = 0.034). In these patients, no significant differencewas found in the total and absolute number of RCsbetween the peritubular and perivascular space. Patientswith obstructive azoospermia had around three timeshigher absolute number of RCs in both the peritubular andperivascular spaces (P = 0.002; P 0.001) than non-obstructivegroup. Conclusion Our results suggest that in patients with nonobstructiveazoospermia LCs migrated or had differentdensities in the peritubular and perivascular space comparedwith patients with obstructive azoospermia. Moreover,the lower number of RCs could imply their utilizationby LCs in testosterone production.