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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on May 18, 2006
Human Reproduction 2006 21(9):2340-2345; doi:10.1093/humrep/del158
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Decrease of both stem cell factor and clusterin mRNA levels in testicular biopsies of azoospermic patients with constitutive or idiopathic but not acquired spermatogenic failure

Ingrid Plotton, Pascale Sanchez, Philippe Durand and Herve Lejeune1

INSERM, U 418, Hôpital Debrousse, INRA, U 1245 and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France

1 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Département de Médecine de la Reproduction, Pavillon K1, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Place d’Arsonval, 69437 Lyon Cedex 03, France. E-mail: herve.lejeune{at}chu-lyon.fr

BACKGROUND: Sertoli cells nurse germ cells during spermatogenesis, and alterations of Sertoli cell functions have been suggested in cases of spermatogenic failures. METHODS: In this work, we measured stem cell factor (SCF) and clusterin mRNA levels, by quantitative RT–PCR, in RNA extracted from testicular biopsies of 49 azoospermic patients classified according to testicular histology as having normal spermatogenesis or spermatogenic failure. RESULTS: When related to the percentage of Sertoli cells counted on a histological section of a neighbouring tissue sample, SCF and clusterin mRNA levels were significantly lower in the ‘spermatogenic failure’ group compared with the control group (P = 0.0297 and P = 0.0043, respectively). These levels were also significantly lower in the cases of ‘constitutive’ (cryptorchidism and Yq microdeletion) and ‘idiopathic’ spermatogenic failures when compared with the control group; conversely, they were not significantly decreased in the group with ‘acquired spermatogenic failure’ (orchitis, testicular traumatism, chemoradiotherapy and varicocele). CONCLUSIONS: These data further demonstrate an alteration of Sertoli cell functions in some human spermatogenic failures and suggest that a lack of Sertoli cell maturation may be involved in cases of constitutive or idiopathic spermatogenic failures.

Key words: azoospermia/clusterin/Sertoli/spermatogenesis/stem cell factor


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