BACKGROUND Many advances have been made in reproductive medicine, yet the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy remains the most common complication of pregnancy. The aetiology of spontaneous recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is multifactorial. Y chromosome microdeletions are found in ∼7% of men with low sperm counts and, compared with the general population, a higher frequency of spontaneous pregnancy ...

BACKGROUND Male infertility due to severe oligozoospermia and azoospermia has been associated with a number of genetic risk factors. METHODS In this study 150 men from couples requesting ICSI were investigated for genetic abnormalities, such as constitutive chromosome abnormalities, microdeletions of the Y chromosome (AZF region) and mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance ...

Bovine adrenal zona fasciculata (AZF) cells express a noninactivating K 1 current (I AC ) that is inhibited by adrenocorticotropic hormone and angiotensin II at subnanomolar concentrations. Since I AC appears to set the membrane potential of AZF cells, these channels may function critically in coupling peptide receptors to membrane depolarization, Ca 2 1 entry, and cortisol secretion. I AC chan...

Spermatogenesis is an essential stage in human male gamete development, which is regulated by many Y chromosome specific genes. Most of these genes are centred in a specific region located on the long arm of the human Y chromosome known as the azoospermia factor region (AZF). Deletion events are common in Y chromosome because of its peculiar structural organization. Astonishingly, among the sev...

Reprogramming receptors to artificially respond to light has strong potential for molecular studies and interrogation of biological functions. Here, we design a light-controlled ionotropic glutamate receptor by genetically encoding a photoreactive unnatural amino acid (UAA). The photo-cross-linker p-azido-L-phenylalanine (AzF) was encoded in NMDA receptors (NMDARs), a class of glutamate-gated i...

To facilitate structural and dynamic studies of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling complexes, new approaches are required to introduce informative probes or labels into expressed receptors that do not perturb receptor function. We used amber codon suppression technology to genetically-encode the unnatural amino acid, p-azido-L-phenylalanine (azF) at various targeted positions in GPCRs ...

Rabbit antibody specific to the 2-azofluorenyl group (anti2-AzF antibody) was used to investigate the behavior of cellular components capable of binding 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) in rat livers during the chemical carcinogenesis. The fixation of the anti-2-AzP antibody in vitro by liver sec tions of rats fed or injected with fluorenyl derivatives was quan titatively measured by the radioiodi...

BACKGROUND Patients with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (OAT) and normal karyotypes have an increased sperm aneuploidy rate. This may be due to an altered intratesticular environment that affects the chromosomal segregation mechanism(s). Alternatively, it may be due to a generalized meiotic and mitotic abnormality. In this case, patients with abnormal spermatogenesis should also have an increased...

Rabbit antibody specific to the 2-azofluorenyl group (anti2-AzF antibody) was used to investigate the behavior of cellular components capable of binding 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) in rat livers during the chemical carcinogenesis. The fixation of the anti-2-AzP antibody in vitro by liver sec tions of rats fed or injected with fluorenyl derivatives was quan titatively measured by the radioiodi...

Microdeletions in Yq11 overlapping three distinct 'azoospermia factors' (AZFa-c) represent the aetiological factor of 10-15% of idiopathic azoospermia and severe oligozoospermia, with higher prevalence in more severe testiculopathies, such as Sertoli cell-only syndrome. Using a PCR-based screening, we analysed Yq microdeletions in 180 infertile patients affected by idiopathic Sertoli cell-only ...