Human Reproduction, Vol. 15, No. 2, 449-451,
February 2000
© 2000 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Compound genetic factors as a cause of male infertility: Case Report
1 Department of Urology, 2 Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, 2330 Post Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94115–1695 and 3 Department of Clinical Cytogenetics, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California, USA
A 40 year old healthy Chinese male with primary infertility was seen in a university male infertility and genetic counselling clinic. He presented with congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD) and the finding of testis atrophy. Fine needle aspiration mapping of the testis identified and localized sperm production within the testicles for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Careful evaluation of testicular cytology revealed late maturation arrest of spermatogenesis. Cystic fibrosis gene mutation analysis revealed heterozygosity for the 5T variant within the polypyrimidine tract of intron 8. Cytogenetic analysis revealed a pericentric inversion of chromosome 6 with break points at p12 and q21 [46,XY,inv(6)(p12q21)]. This case illustrates that spermatogenesis is not necessarily normal with congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens. Compound genetic defects may coexist and underlie male infertility.
Key words: azoospermia/CBAVD/cytogenetic inversion/infertility
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