Ultrastructure of lamellar complexes in glomerular Krause spherical corpuscles

The authors compared the ultrastructure of lamellar complexes in the penis skin of the green monkey and in the woman's clitoris skin. In the green monkey the lamellar complexes consist of a maximum of 5 lamellae of Schwann cells, their greatest width is about 4.5 microm. The interlamellar spaces are filled with fine filamentous material. In the woman the lamellar complexes consist of a maximum of 7 lamellae, the interlamellar spaces are narrower than in the first case and filled with collagenous fibrils. Their maximum width is about 6.5 microm. The findings thus support the view that the lamellar complexes of glomerular corpuscles are morphologically and functionally similar to other simple lamellar corpuscles. The glomerular corpuscles contain also some non myelinated thin nerve fibers. Therefore for these corpuscles an additional (unclear) function can be considered.