Exposure to environmental factors can induce the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease. Alterations to the epigenome termed "epimutations" include "primary epimutations" which are epigenetic alterations in the absence of genetic change and "secondary epimutations" which form following an initial genetic change. To determine if secondary epimutations contribute to transgenerational...

INTRODUCTION A non-invasive test, which could predict the presence of sperm during a testicular sperm extraction (TESE) procedure in men with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), would be of profound clinical importance. Inhibin B (Inh-B) and anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) have been proposed as direct markers of Sertoli cell function and indirect markers of spermatogenesis. METHODS A search was c...

Individual spermatozoa were assessed with pairs of probes for persistent histones and cytoplasmic retention, persistent histones and DNA fragmentation, and persistent histones and apoptotic markers. The individual spermatozoa were treated sequentially with combinations of probes for these cytoplasmic and nuclear biochemical markers. Sperm fields were recorded with computer-assisted imaging, and...

The field of cancer epigenetics is evolving rapidly on several fronts. Advances in our understanding of chromatin structure, histone modification, transcriptional activity and DNA methylation have resulted in an increasingly integrated view of epigenetics. In response to these insights, epigenetic therapy is expanding to include combinations of histone deacetylase inhibitors and DNA methyltrans...

Cancer is caused by aberrant genetic and epigenetic changes in genes expression. DNA methylation, histone modification, and microRNAs gene deregulation are the most known epigenetic changes in different stages of cancer. Since every tumor has its own specific epigenome, any abnormal pattern is a potential biomarker for classification of different types of tumors. Despite, tumorigenesis, abnorma...

BACKGROUND Couples with unexplained infertility (UI) tend to have low fertilization rates with current IVF procedures. Here, we attempted to identify spermatozoa with apoptotic markers in couples with UI and unsuccessful intrauterine insemination (IUI) and we investigated the efficiency and benefit of magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) for sperm preparation in such patients. METHODS Sixty...

Abstract Darwin, in the pangenesis theory, imagined particles, named as ‘gemmules’, which are released from all (‘pan’) cells of body. By cell–cell communication and also circulation through body, they finally reach germ to participate generation (‘genesis’) new individual. It has been shown that circulatory exosomes affected by environmental stressors can parental cells. Therefore, mirror his ...

During human spermiogenesis, the elongated spermatids undergo a plasma membrane remodeling step that facilitates formation of the zona pellucida and hyaluronic acid (HA) binding sites. Various biochemical sperm markers indicated that human sperm bound to HA exhibit attributes similar to that of zona pellucida-bound sperm, including minimal DNA fragmentation, normal shape, and low frequency of c...

Proteins expressed on the surface of sperm and egg mediate gametic compatibility and these proteins can be subject to intense positive selection. In this review, we discuss what is known about the patterns of adaptive evolution of gamete recognition proteins (GRPs). We focus on species that broadcast eggs and sperm into the environment for external fertilization, as the ease of observing and ma...

Epigenetic alterations consisting mainly of DNA methylation alterations and histone modification alterations are frequently observed in cancers associated with chronic inflammation and/or persistent infection with viruses or other pathogenic microorganisms, or with cigarette smoking. Accumulating evidence suggests that alterations of DNA methylation are involved even in the early and precancero...