Unregelmässig aufgebaute Zellgemeinschaften des Samenepithels beim free-ranging japanischen Makak (Macaca fuscata) in der Paarungszeit

Abstract

Testicular biopsies were obtained from 11 adult males of free-ranging Japanese macaques trapped from Takasakiyama troops at the height of the breeding season. The spermatogenesis was observed on Bouin fixed and hematoxylin-eosin stained sections, especially from the viewpoint of seminiferous epithelial cycle. One cycle may be classified into seven stages. The classification, however, is not very easily carried out, because the seminiferous epithelium is, in most cases, very irregularly constructed, and typical germ cell associations which are easily identified, are infrequently observed. On the basis of the classification, various types of irregularities in the arrangement of the cellular associations were investigated and classified. In an unexpectedly large number of seminiferous tubular cross-sections, the lumina are obscured or obliterated owing to disarrangement of germ cells. As a consequence of this, the tubular sections with clearly discernible lumina are very rarely found (38 in a total of 1,215 observed cross-sections). Furthermore, the presence of several different stages in a singular cross-section is rather a common phenomenon (404 in a total of 1,215).