Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Alerts
  • About us
    • About Development
    • About the Node
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Workshops and Meetings
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Subscriptions
    • Feedback
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Development
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Development

  • Log in
Advanced search

RSS  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Alerts
  • About us
    • About Development
    • About the Node
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Workshops and Meetings
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Subscriptions
    • Feedback
JOURNAL ARTICLES
The fate of fetal Leydig cells during the development of the fetal and postnatal rat testis
J.B. Kerr, C.M. Knell
Development 1988 103: 535-544;
J.B. Kerr
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
C.M. Knell
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Summary

The ultrastructure and developmental fate of the fetal generation of Leydig cells of the rat testis was studied from the 17th day of fetal life up to 100 days after birth. The number of fetal Leydig cells per testis was determined by light microscopic morphometric analysis of semithin plastic sections. In fetal testes (days 17–22 postconception), Leydig cells exhibited a characteristic ultrastructure, containing smooth endoplasmic reticulum, many lipid inclusions and glycogen. Testes of 17-day-old fetuses contained about 25 × 10(3) fetal Leydig cells, rapidly increasing to 90 × 10(3) per testis in 21-day-old fetuses. After birth, fetal Leydig cells per testis remained relatively constant up to 2 weeks (80–90 × 10(3) per testis) and were identified by light and electron microscopy which showed their numerous lipid inclusions, their tendency for clustering and their association with interstitial tissue fibroblasts which partly encapsulated the fetal Leydig cells. From 21–100 days after birth, fetal Leydig cell numbers were quite variable with a mean of 45–60 × 10(3) per testis. These results are the first to show that the fetal generation of Leydig cells persist in the adult testis and do not undergo early postnatal degeneration or dedifferentiation into other interstitial cells. The simultaneous occurrence of the fetal Leydig cells and the adult population of Leydig cells indicates that these cells are distinct cell generations which are developmentally unrelated.

Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Development.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The fate of fetal Leydig cells during the development of the fetal and postnatal rat testis
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Development
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Development web site.
Share
The fate of fetal Leydig cells during the development of the fetal and postnatal rat testis
J.B. Kerr, C.M. Knell
Development 1988 103: 535-544;
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
The fate of fetal Leydig cells during the development of the fetal and postnatal rat testis
J.B. Kerr, C.M. Knell
Development 1988 103: 535-544;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article navigation

  • Top
  • Article
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • Groucho augments the repression of multiple Even skipped target genes in establishing parasegment boundaries
  • Axial skeletal patterning in mice lacking all paralogous group 8 Hox genes
  • Morphogenetic cell movements in the middle region of the dermomyotome dorsomedial lip associated with patterning and growth of the primary epaxial myotome
Show more JOURNAL ARTICLES

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Journal of Cell Science

Journal of Experimental Biology

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Biology Open

Advertisement

Spotlight – In vivo imaging: shining a light on stem cells in the living animal

Phong Dang Nguyen and Peter David Currie highlight how recent advances in imaging technologies have enabled stem cells to be visualised in real time within intact organ systems, revealing novel aspects of their behaviour, especially in response to injury.


Review – The ontogeny, activation and function of the epicardium during heart development and regeneration

In a historical and current Review of comparative studies, Filipa C. Simões and Paul R. Riley, provide insight into the epicardium during heart development and regeneration: origins, formation, cell fate, signalling activity, interaction with the local environment and therapeutic potential.


A new Editor-in-Chief for Development

http://dev.biologists.org/sites/default/files/Snippet/0318_News.jpg

“I'm very keen that Development continues to innovate and support our community.”

We're delighted to announce the appointment of James Briscoe, Group Leader at The Francis Crick Institute, London, as our new Editor-in-Chief. Read our interview with James to find out his career and research interests, the importance of interdisciplinary thinking in developmental biology, and his views on the current state and future opportunities in scientific publishing. Also, check out the Editorial from Sarah Bray, Kate Storey and Katherine Brown to learn more about the announcement, and about our recent community consultation.


On the Node – The people behind the papers

Volvocine algae provide a useful and fascinating model to study how the eukaryote transition from isogamy to anisogamy, and ultimately to oogamy occurred. A new Research Article explores the genetics of the process in Volvox and some of its relatives. The Node caught up with first author Sa Geng and his PI James Umen to hear the story behind the work.


From stem cells to human development ­– meeting reporter competition

In September, Development is hosting our next meeting focusing on human developmental biology. We are excited to announce a competition for a reporter to cover the meeting for the Node. The winner will get free registration to the meeting, and it’s a fantastic opportunity to practice your science communication skills - find out more here.


Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting

Development is a proud sponsor of the upcoming Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting, which takes place 11-15 August 2018 at the University of California, Santa Cruz . Registration for this meeting is now open!


Articles of interest in our sister journals

Dynamics of cortical domains in early Drosophila development
Anja Schmidt, Jörg Grosshans. J Cell Sci 2018 131: jcs212795

Matrix elasticity regulates mesenchymal stem cell chemotaxis
Neha Saxena, Pankaj Mogha, Silalipi Dash, Abhijit Majumder, Sameer Jadhav, Shamik Sen. J Cell Sci 2018 131: jcs211391

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Issue in progress
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Special issues
  • Subject collections
  • Alerts

About us

  • About Development
  • About the Node
  • Editors and board
  • Editor biographies
  • Travelling Fellowships
  • Grants and funding
  • Workshops and Meetings
  • The Company of Biologists

For authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Figure preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access
  • Biology Open transfer

Journal info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Alerts

Contact

  • Contact Development
  • Subscriptions
  • Advertising
  • Feedback

 Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2018   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992