CEDIE   05498
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES ENDOCRINOLOGICAS "DR. CESAR BERGADA"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Success and Failure in Human Spermatogenesis as Revealed by Teratozoospermic RNAs
Autor/es:
PLATTS A.E.; DIX D.J.; CHEMES H.E.; THOMPSON K.E.; GOODRICH R.; ROCKETT J.C.; RAWE V.Y.; QUINTANA S.; DIAMOND M.P.; STRADER L.F.; KRAWETZ S.A.
Revista:
HUMAN MOLECULAR GENETICS
Referencias:
Año: 2006
ISSN:
0964-6906
Resumen:
Abstract Background We are coming to appreciate that at fertilization human spermatozoa deliver the paternal genome alongside a suite of structures, proteins and RNAs. While the role of some of the structures and proteins as requisite elements for early human development has been established, the function of the sperm-delivered RNAs remains a point for discussion. The presence of RNAs in transcriptionally quiescent spermatozoa can only be derived from transcription that precedes late spermiogenesis. This represents a previously untapped resource that could markedly advance our understanding of male factor infertility. Methods A cross-platform microarray strategy was used to assess the profile of human spermatozoal transcripts from fertile males who had fathered at least one child compared to teratozoospermic individuals. Unsupervised clustering of the data followed by pathway and ontological analysis revealed the transcriptional disruption common to affected individuals. Results Transcripts encoding components of various cellular remodeling pathways such as ubiquitinylation and proteasomal degradation were severely disrupted. Their origin could be traced as far back as the pachytene stage of spermatogenesis. Conclusions The results reported in this study are the first to establish the use of sperm RNA profiling as a diagnostic tool. Using a suite of data mining strategies we were able to uncover a molecular pathway consistently disrupted in teratozoospermia, one of the classic forms of male factor infertility. It is anticipated that this will prove a valuable diagnostic strategy for understanding idiopathic male factor infertility.