Childhood cancer and hematological disorders negatively affect spermatogonial quantity at diagnosis: a retrospective study of a male fertility preservation cohort

For young boys with cancer or a non-malignant hematological disorder, conditioning therapy, abdominal/pelvic radiotherapy, and certain chemotherapies form a major risk for germ cell loss. Contradictory studies have investigated the direct effects of such diseases on the development of the prepubertal male gonad before mainline treatment. For health professionals to counsel pediatric patients in the …

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Temperature sensitivity of DNA double-strand break repair underpins heat-induced meiotic failure in mouse spermatogenesis

Kodai Hirano, Yuta Nonami, Yoshiaki Nakamura, Toshiyuki Sato, Takuya Sato, Keiichiro Ishiguro, Takehiko Ogawa, *Shosei Yoshida Background Spermatogenesis in mammals is a temperature-sensitive developmental process that occurs at a few degrees below the core body temperature of 38 °C. Elevated testis temperatures disrupt spermatogenesis at various phases, leading to male infertility. Artificial cryptorchidism, which involves surgically …

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Global profiling of the proteomic changes associated with the post-testicular maturation of mouse spermatozoa

During the differentiation phase at the spermiogenesis (the last phase of the spermatogenesis), haploid round spermatids undergo an extreme morphological remodelling of nuclear and cytoplasmic structures. Nonetheless, while testicular sperm are morphologically specialized cells, they are not functional and lack both the ability to swim and fertilize. Hence, sperm maturation in the epididymis is therefore …

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Molecular evolutionary investigation of spermatogenesis

Human semen quality is remarkably poor, with a reduced efficiency of spermatogenesis. Studies revealed that latter complex process has undergone rapid evolutionary changes. Male infertility is increasing which leads to a concomitant higher demand of assisted reproductive technologies. As other primates have not experienced the same decreasing fertility, a multicenter study sought to uncover the …

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Single-cell roadmap of human gonadal development

After primordial germ cells (PGCs) have colonized the gonadal ridge at roughly 3–5 weeks post conception (WPC), two successive development stages are observed during male gonadogenesis: sex determination of the bipotential gonads and testis differentiation. At 6 WPC, the SRY gene becomes expressed in the bipotent supporting cells in the gonadal coelomic epithelium, ventral to …

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Tête-à-tête with Sandra Laurentino

We bring you the opportunity to get to know another invited speaker to the upcoming 14th NYRA Meeting in Norwich (September 19th-21st) through this ‘tête-à-tête’. Dr. Sandra Laurentino studied Biochemistry and did her PhD in Biomedicine at the University of Beira Interior in her native Portugal. Right afterwards she move to Germany to  join the …

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Tête-à-tête with Kristian Almstrup

This time we bring an interview to get to know another of our invited speakers at the 14th NYRA meeting, which will take place in Norwich from 19-21st of September 2022. Kristian Almstrup is a Senior Scientist at Copenhagen University Hospital – Rigshospitalet, where he serves as a research leader at the Department of Growth and Reproduction. …

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Building functional sperm

Many thousands of genes are required for male fertility in mammals. In the testis, these genes govern the diverse individual processes of mitosis, meiosis and spermiogenesis, which are ultimately required to generate sperm. During this latter process of spermiogenesis, round spermatids undergo a complete remodelling to generate a sperm tail for motility, sculpt the nucleus …

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