The objective of the present study was to determine the frequency of somatic chromosomal anomalies and Y chromosomal microdeletions (azoospermia factor genes, AZF) in infertile males who seek assisted reproduction. These studies are very important because the assisted reproduction techniques (mainly intracytoplasmic sperm injection) bypass the natural selection process and some classical chromo...

Male infertility is considered a common health problem, and non-obstructive azoospermia with unclear pathogenesis is one of the most challenging tasks for clinicians. The objective of this study was to investigate the differential serum metabolic pattern in non-obstructive azoospermic men and to determine potential biomarkers related to spermatogenic dysfunction. Serum samples from patients wit...

Mean plasma testosterone levels (+/- S.D.), using Sephadex LH-20 and competitive protein binding, were 629 +/- 160 ng/100 ml for a group of 27 normal adult men, 650 +/- 205 ng/100 ml for 27 impotent men with normal secondary sex characteristics, 644 +/- 178 ng/100 ml for 20 men with oligospermia, and 563 +/- 125 ng/100 ml for 16 azoospermic men. None of these values differ significantly. For 21...

BACKGROUND Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have potential of differentiation and they secrete anti-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors which make them appropriate for cell therapy. AIM OF THE WORK Were to evaluate the healing effect of BM-MSCs transplantation on germinal cells of busulfan-induced azoospermic hamsters. MATERIAL AND METHODS In the present experiment...

Flow cytometry coupled to cell sorting is proposed as a method to isolate round spermatids from testicular biopsies in obstructive azoospermic patients. The cells were separated on the basis of their size and density only. We obtained homogenous populations of alive round spermatids free of lymphocytes and diploid germ cells. The detection of protamine 1 gene (PRM1) and PRM2 expression in the s...

Controversial reports have been published about the influence of sperm source and of the underlying testicular pathology on success rates of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). In this controlled study, ICSI treatment cycles with testicular spermatozoa from men with obstructive and non-obstructive azoospermia were compared with ICSI ejaculated sperm cycles with semen parameters < or = 5 x ...

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a successful treatment option for severe male infertility, although the aetiology of the disorder remains unclear in most cases. Recently, microdeletions in the AZF region of the Y chromosome have been detected in men with azoospermia or severe oligozoospermia. In this study we investigated the prevalence of microdeletions in the AZF region of the Y ch...

The purpose of this chapter is to put in perspective the accumulating molecular data on Y chromosomal X chromosomal, and autosomal spermatogenesis genes, and their transmission to ICSI offspring. The current gene search on the Y chromosome is just a starting point for locating many other spermatogenesis genes that are widespread throughout the genome. Now that the Y has been sequenced, many mor...