The development of Leydig cells in mammals has been widely
described as a biphasic pattern with two temporally mature Leydig
cell populations, fetal stage followed by the adult generation
beginning at puberty. In the present study, mouse Leydig cells
were examined for apoptosis during postnatal testis development
using electron microscopy and in situ DNA fragmentation
by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase staining (TdT). Both
the morphological study and the DNA fragmentation analysis showed
that cellular death by apoptosis did not occur in Leydig cells
during the neonatal, prepubertal, puberty, and adult periods.
From these results, we suggest that the remaining fetal Leydig
cells in the neonatal testis are associated with the involution
or degeneration processes. In contrast, in the prepubertal and
puberty stages, fragmentation of apoptotic DNA was detected
in germ cells present in some seminiferous tubules.