EFFICIENT AND UNBIASED TOOLS FOR QUANTITATING LEYDIG AND SERTOLI CELLS IN THE TESTIS FROM TESTES BIOPSIES

The possibility of obtaining reliable estimates of the total number of Sertoli and Leydig cells from biopsies by use of the optical fractionator method was tested. The total number of Sertoli and Leydig cells was 522x106 (CV = 0.27) and 89x106 (CV = 0.34), respectively, when sampling in the entire testis while the mean total number of Sertoli and Leydig cells, sampling from biopsies, was 494x106 and 103x106, respectively, statistically a non-significant difference. The present study indicated that total number of testicular cells can be estimated stereologically from the number of cells in biopsies if the sizes of testis and the biopsy can be assessed with adequate precision.