Background: This study was conducted to identify and characterize repopulating spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) in the adult human testes. Materials and Methods: Testes biopsies from obstructive azoospermic patients and normal segments of human testicular tissue were used. Flow cytometry, real time PCR and immunohistochemical analysis were performed. Purified human spermatogonia were transplant...

Although the technique of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has been a revolution in the alleviation of male infertility, the use of testicular sperm for ICSI was a formerly unseen breakthrough in the treatment of the azoospermic man with primary testicular failure. At the clinical level, different procedures of testicular sperm retrieval (conventional TESE, micro-TESE, FNA/TESA, MESA, PE...

Male Japanese black bears (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) have an explicit reproductive cycle. The objective of this study was to clarify the variation of plasma testosterone, FSH, inhibin, LH levels and testicular gonadotropin receptor mRNA expression of male bears associated with their testicular activity. Notably, this study investigated peripheral FSH concentration and localization of gonadotr...

PURPOSE To investigate the long-term effect of testicular torsion on sperm parameters and testis structure in order to introduce a novel mice azoospermic model for spermatogonial stem cell transplantation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Unilateral testicular torsion was created. The animals were divided into two groups each containing 15 mice. They underwent 2 and 4 hours of unilateral testicular isch...

We describe the potential stemness of a small amount of frozen-thawed testicular tissue without sperm obtained by biopsy from six patients undergoing assisted reproductive treatment. The patients were diagnosed with Sertoli Cell-Only Syndrome alone or combined with maturation arrest. Trying to provide the natural stem cell niche for cultured stem cells, all isolated cells from enzymatically deg...

Increased urinary concentrations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their metabolites are associated with increased risk of unexplained infertility in males. The toxicity of PAHs and dioxins are exclusively mediated through Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR). AhR overexpression contributes to the loss of normal ovarian function in polluted environments but its expression level in unexp...

Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men (ages 15-45). In the testes, cancer of the germ cells (immature sperm) is by far the most frequent, though cancer of the testosteroneproducing Leydig cells can also occur. Fortunately, treatment for testicular cancer has markedly improved over the past several decades, and the disease is frequently curable with combinations of surgery, ch...

OBJECTIVE To examine whether the results of assisted reproduction with the use of elongated spermatids from a man with incomplete arrest of spermiogenesis and a high frequency of apoptosis among postmeiotic germ cells can be improved by germ cell in vitro culture. DESIGN Case report. SETTING Private assisted reproduction centers and a university department. PATIENT(S) Man with incomplete ...

The inverse relationship of testicular size and circulating follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) concentrations has been documented, and accompanying this relationship is the change in color of the parenchymal tissue of the testes. Large testes (300 to 400 g) are pink to light red and small testes (100 g) are dark maroon with color gradations for weights in between. It was hypothesized that this ...