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Updated: May 5, 2026

Transillumination-Assisted Dissection of Specific Stages of the Mouse Seminiferous Epithelial Cycle for Downstream Immunostaining Analyses
Published on: October 7, 2020
Novel clathrin/actin-based endocytic machinery associated with junction turnover in the seminiferous epithelium
A Wayne Vogl1, Min Du1, Xue Ying Wang1
1Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z3.
Abstract:
Tubulobulbar complexes are elaborate clathrin/actin related structures that form at sites of intercellular attachment in the seminiferous epithelium of the mammalian testis. Here we summarize what is currently known about the morphology and molecular composition of these structures and review evidence that the structures internalize intercellular junctions both at apical sites of Sertoli cell attachment to spermatids, and at basal sites where Sertoli cells form the blood-testis barrier. We present updated models of the sperm release and spermatocyte translocation mechanisms that incorporate tubulobulbar complexes into their designs.
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