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THE ROLE OF THE Y CHROMOSOME IN MALE INFERTILITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2005

NABEEL A AFFARA
NABEEL A AFFARA
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Extract

It is estimated that as many as 10% of couples worldwide suffer from infertility or reduced fertility, and that in approximately half of these cases this results from defective spermatogenesis. In 60% of these infertile men, the failure to produce mature germ cells (i.e. azoospermia) or the formation of low numbers of sperm (i.e. oligozoospermia) can be ascribed a genetic aetiology. Few of the loci associated with male infertility have been mapped in humans; however, several genetic models of defective germ-cell development and differentiation have been described in mice. The schematic in Figure 1 summarizes the main features of spermatogenesis in humans.

Type
Research Article
Information
Reproductive Medicine Review , Volume 11 , Issue 2-3 , July 2003 , pp. 67 - 85
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

First published 3 January 2001 in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine: http://www.expertreviews.org/01002319h.htm Updated: 22 March 2004