Summary
Microfilaments in the myoid cells of the peritubular tissue in the mouse, swine and human testis bind heavy meromyosin (HMM) and form arrowhead complexes. The periodicity of the arrowhead complexes is about 35 nm. Individual filaments show arrowheads that point in the same direction. Opposing polarity of the HMM-bound filaments is also observed. The microfilaments do not bind HMM in the presence of 10 mM ATP. After treatment with the contraction medium of Hoffmann-Berling, the filaments appear to be undulated. These observations indicate that the microfilaments in the myoid cell are actin-like in nature. A small number of thicker filaments (about 10 nm in diameter) which do not bind HMM is also observed in the cell. Microfibrils which have been reported around the human myoid cell are also found in the swine.
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The author gratefully acknowledges Drs. Takashi Obinata for providing HMM and Takashi Katayama for providing the castrated human testes. He also thanks Drs. Toshio Nagano for his support and critical reading of the manuscript, Harunori Ishikawa for his helpful suggestions during the course of the study and Ernest F. Couch for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript
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Toyama, Y. Actin-like filaments in the myoid cell of the testis. Cell Tissue Res. 177, 221–226 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00221083
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00221083