ISSN:
0002-9106
Keywords:
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
The antebrachial organ of the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) is a highly differentiated cutaneous appendage composed of atypical apocrine sweat glands and of clumps of large interstitial cells. These cells have many similarities to steroid-secreting cells, most notably an extensive agranular reticulum, which occurs in several forms. Commonly it consists of random tubules, but at times these are compacted into tight masses. The cisternae sometimes are distended with dense inclusions. Often the agranular reticulum differentiates into a rigidly patterned crystalloid composed of stacked layers of parallel, interconnected tubules. The three-dimensional structure of the crystalloid is identical in both sexes, but the crystalloid of the male is scaled down in all its dimensions by a factor of about 0.9 as compared to that of the female. The interstitial cells, like steroidogenic tissue, exhibit intense 3β-, 17β-, and 20α-hydroxy-steroid dehydrogenase activity and contain abundant esterases; thiobutyric esterase activity is limited to the agranular reticulum.For comparative purposes, examination has been made of several other tissues having agranular reticulum: testicular interstitial cells, corpus luteum, adrenal cortex, and sebaceous cells of Lemur catta, rat meibomian glands, and the Leydig cells of human testis. The Reinke crystalloid of human testicular interstitial cells is totally unlike the crystalloid of the interstitial cell of the antebrachial organ.
Additional Material:
2 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aja.1001210211
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