ultrastructural alterations in the basement memberane in human non-obstructive azoospermia testis

introduction: the morphology and ultrastructure of germinal epithelum basement memberane (bm) in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia was studied by means of transmision electron microscipy. materials and methods: 10 biopsies of testis tissue from patients with non-obstructive azoospermia referred to royan institute as patients group and 5 biopsies from patients with prostatic cancer as control group were used. after tissue proccessing for electron microscopy, the tissues were examined. results: the most important result in this study, was thickening of bm. the other pathological changes were folding and invagination of bm toward germinal epithelum and multilayring and splitting (delamination) of bm. conclusion: the results showed that pathological changes were observed in all patients. because th bm is made by both sertoli and myoid cells, maturation of these cells are important. probably such pathological changes in bm are due to abnormality in these cells.