Despite semen being the main vector of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dissemination worldwide, the origin of the virus in this bodily fluid remains unclear. It was recently shown that several organs of the male genital tract (MGT) are infected by HIV/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and likely to contribute to semen viral load during the primary and chronic stages of the infection. These...

STUDY QUESTION Is there evidence at the population level of associations between different male genital disorders, outside Scandinavian countries? SUMMARY ANSWER At an international scale, there is evidence for a number of correlations between rates of four male reproductive disorders (hypospadias, cryptorchidism, testicular cancer and low sperm concentration). WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Some as...

By the expression sex complex is meant the correlation of all the internal secretions with the reproductive functions, e.g., we have long known that there is a physiological connection between the genital organs and the thymus gland. I)r. Blair Bell gives an excellent account of the functions of the various endocritic glands and of the influence of the secretions on one another, on the body met...

BACKGROUND Although indirect evidence suggests the male genital tract as a possible source of persistent HIV shedding in semen during antiretroviral therapy, this phenomenon is poorly understood due to the difficulty of sampling semen-producing organs in HIV+ asymptomatic individuals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Using a range of molecular and cell biological techniques, this study investig...

The anatomy and histology of female Homalodisca coagulata (Say) (Hemiptera: Cicadellida: Proconiini) reproductive organs is described using light microscopy. The reproductive organs ofH. coagulata consist of one pair of ovaries, eachwith 10 telotrophic ovarioles, a pair of lateral oviducts, a common oviduct, a spermatheca, an enlarged genital duct, a complex bursa copulatrix, a vagina, two type...

UNLABELLED A number of men receiving prolonged suppressive highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) still shed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in semen. To investigate whether this seminal shedding may be due to poor drug penetration and/or viral production by long-lived cells within male genital tissues, we analyzed semen and reproductive tissues from macaques chronically infected with ...

The entry tropism of HIV-1 Env proteins from virus isolated from the blood and genital tract of five men with compartmentalized lineages was determined. The Env proteins isolated from the genital tract of subject C018 were macrophage-tropic proteins, while the remaining cloned env genes encoded R5 T cell-tropic proteins. The detection of a macrophage-tropic lineage of HIV-1 within the male geni...

Hypospadias is the most common anomaly in the male genital tract with an incidence of 0.8-8.2 per 1000 live male births. Routinely, hypospadias cases are repaired after one year of age, and it is recommended that a child with hypospadias not to be circumcised until hypospadias repair is completed. This study was conducted to determine whether or not circumcision prior to hypospadias repair incr...

Data on the concentrations of didanosine (ddI) and tenofovir (TFV) in seminal plasma are sparse. Subtherapeutic drug concentrations within the lumen of the male genital tract may have implications for selection and transmission of drug-resistant HIV strains. On the other hand, sufficient penetration of these drugs into the male genital tract has potential toxic effects on the spermatozoa and th...