Ultrastructural study of gonads in the complete and incomplete feminization syndrome

The gonads of two individuals with complete and one with incomplete testicular feminization were examined by light and electron microscopy. In the seminiferous tubules of the complete forms, clear, intermediate, and dark-type Sertoli cells could be distinguished. These are immature elements which had assumed, under the influence of hormones, different morphology. Leydig cells were also immature, at varying stages of differentiation. In the complete form Sertoli and Leydig cells had an almost normal fine structure; the lamina basalis of the tubules, however, was considerably thickened.