A Study of the Male Germ-cells of the Rat and the Mouse by Phase-contrast Microscopy

1. The cytoplasmic components of the male germ-cells of the rat and the mouse were examined by phase-contrast microscopy. Most of the structures seen in fixed and stained preparations were identified. 2. The localized Golgi material of spermatocytes and spermatids consists of rods and filaments. The mitochondria are granular. 3. The archoplasmic vacuole, proacrosome, developing acrosome, proximal and distal centrioles, and the axial filament were visible. A structure which may be an accessory body was observed in spermatocytes and spermatids. The manchette was visible in late spermatids of the rat but not in those of the mouse. 4. Examination of spermatozoa revealed the acrosome, the post-nuclear cap, the mitochondrial sheath, the ring centriole, and the protoplasmic bead. A granule was sometimes visible in the neck region.

XIX.—A Comparative Study of the Cytoplasmic Components of the Male Germ-Cells of Certain Mammals

The work recorded in this paper was undertaken in order to obtain further knowledge regarding the behaviour of the cytoplasmic components of the male germ-cells of mammals and the contribution made by these bodies to the structure of the ripe sperm. Consequently, mammals from different groups were examined.Investigations were carried out independently by Zlotnik on the male germ-cells of the dog, the cat, and the rabbit, by Gresson on the boar and the ram, and jointly by Gresson and Zlotnik on the white rat and the golden hamster. Zlotnik (1943) originally identified and described the nuclear-ring of the spermatid and sperm of the dog. The accessory body was recognised simultaneously by him and by Gresson, but Zlotnik was the first to observe an accessory body within the localised Golgi material of the spermatocyte and to follow its extrusion to the cytoplasm, and, later, Gresson identified an accessory body within the Golgi material of the spermatid of the boar. In general the conclusions of the two authors are closely similar, such differences of detail or of interpretation as exist are discussed in this paper.

Memoirs: The Cytoplasmic Inclusions in the Spermatogenesis of Man

The points which we have brought out in this paper are: 1. The development of the acrosome from the Golgi apparatus, which has been figured for the first time during growth, and the stages of acrosome formation in the human. 2. The almost complete break-up of the Golgi apparatus at dictyokinesis, and the late reassembly of the fragments apparently independently of the spermatid centrioles. 3. The very probable presence of a neck granule apparatus as distinct from the head or proximal centriole (c1). 4. The claim that the head centriole does not divide. The emergence of the flagellum from the proximal and distal centrioles jointly. 5. The development of the post-nuclear cap in human spermatids. 6. The apparent absence of any form of spiral body in the middle-piece. 7. The different types of Golgi apparatus in the Sertoli and spermatogenic cells. 8. The presence of a vacuole in the head of the spermatozoon. 9. The remarkable ‘nutrient syncytium’ connected with the Sertoli cells. 10. The accessory body in the cytoplasm.