ELASTIC FIBERS IN THE TUNICA PROPRIA OF NORMAL AND PATHOLOGIC HUMAN TESTES*†

Abstract

Elastic fibers were absent from the tunica propria of prepuberal testes; they appeared at the time of puberty and attained adult features just after puberty. In cases of eunuchoidism with low follicle stimulating hormone excretion, the elastic fibers were absent; in postpuberal hypogonadism produced by administration of estrogen, they were short and thin; they were found in 6 of 13 cases of Klinefelter''s syndrome; in true precocious puberty they resembled the fibers seen in the postpuberal states; they were normal in cases of arrested spermatogenesis; and they were found in several rows of thick, long fibers with strong staining reactions in the syndrome associated with absence of germ cells.