Although in the past decades much progress in testicular cancer (TC) management has been made, little is known about the possible genetic causes and molecular mechanisms involved in its aetiopathogenesis. Some studies on possible contribution of the Y chromosome in TC development have been previously published, but data are not conclusive. In particular, ethnic influence and spermatogenic activ...

BACKGROUND We evaluated the impact of testicular germ cell cancer (TGCC), its treatment and length of follow-up on sperm DNA integrity. METHODS In 96 TGCC patients, semen was collected at specific intervals until 5 years after treatment. Sperm DNA integrity was assessed by the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA, n = 193) and by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-e...

Current guidelines suggest that treatment of varicocele should be considered in patients with clinically palpable disease and abnormal semen parameters. However, the clinicians are often challenged with the decision whether to treat varicocele in patients with testicular pain or low testosterone levels. Moreover, varicocele is highly associated with DNA fragmentation due to the oxidative stress...

BACKGROUND Embryo selection is a vital part of in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs, with morphology-based grading systems having been widely used for decades. Time-lapse imaging combined with embryo morph kinetics may proffer a non-invasive means for improving embryo selection. We report the first ongoing and chemical pregnancies using Time-lapse embryo scope to select best embryos for transf...

Introduction and Aim: Idiopathic infertility accounts for at least 30% of all cases infertility, oxidative stress has been identified as a novel developing factor in idiopathic male infertility. Oxidative occurs when antioxidant defense mechanisms are outmatched by the creation reactive oxygen species (ROS). The purpose this research was to examine impact enzymatic antioxidants (catalase supero...

This study aimed to explore the association between the methylation status of the VDAC2 gene promoter region and idiopathic asthenospermia (IAS). Twenty-five IAS patients and 27 fertile normozoospermia (NZ) were involved. GC-2spd cells were treated with different concentrations of 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-CdR) for 24 h and 48 h. qRT-PCR was conducted to reveal whether or not VDAC2 expressi...

BACKGROUND Partial AZFc deletions related to testis-specific gene families are common mutations of the Y chromosome, but their contribution to spermatogenic impairment is still unresolved, and the risk factors for the formation of the deletions remain unknown. With this in mind, we investigated the possible association between Y chromosome haplogroups and predisposition to partial AZFc deletion...

We established a quick and reliable method for recovering cell-free seminal DNA (cfsDNA), by using the binding-washing-elution procedure on the DNA purification column. Low variations (below 15%) among the triplicate values of cfsDNA quantity verified the reproducibility of our cfsDNA recovery method. Similar cfsDNA yield and size distribution between seminal plasma acquired by filtration and c...

Fifty (50) seminal samples were studied to determine the microbial influence in male infertility as well as the qualitative and quantitative features of the semen. Among the three bacterial isolates isolated from the sample, Staphylococcus aureus 7(77.8%) was found to be the most predominant isolate, other isolates were Escherichia coli 1(11.1%) and Citrobacter spp. In relation to semen concent...

A multi-centre study was undertaken to: a/ determine the density of human semen, and b/ assess the validity of measuring semen volume either volumetrically or gravimetrically. Semen samples from four clinical categories (azoospermia following vasectomy, azoospermia without vasectomy, oligozoospermia (<20x10(6)/ml) and normozoospermia (>/=20x10(6)/ml)) had similar densities (one-way ANOVA: F(3,1...