Amongst men who attend fertility problems clinics, just over 10% are diagnosed to be oligospermic (< 5 × 106 sperm per ml) or azoospermic, with no known aetiological explanation. Amongst the many possible causes of impaired sperm production there is a genetic component, a pointer to the possible location of some of the responsible genes being found in 1976 when Tiepolo and Zuffardi discovered six azoospermic individuals with a deleted Y chromosome. In each individual, the long arm of the Y chromosome had lost its distal fluorescent segment as well as part of the nonfluorescent euchromatin lying proximal to it (Figure 1). They hypothesized that factors important in spermatogenesis might lie at the interface between fluorescent and nonfluorescent material. The locus, AZFor ‘azoospermia factor’, was subsequently mapped, using collections of deleted Y chromosomes, to interval six of the long arm and it lies within cytological band Yq11.23 (Figure 2).

Of all the assisted reproductive technologies in current use, artificial insemination has by far the longest history. While the earliest verifiable reports using this technique date to the eighteenth century for nonhuman artificial insemination and to the nineteenth century for human artificial insemination, systematic use of this approach to assist reproduction did not occur until the early part of this century. During the early 1900s, in Russia, Ivanov developed methods for semen collection from and insemination of horses. These techniques were later modified to apply to other agriculturally important species so that by the 1930s, millions of horses, cattle and sheep were being bred using artificial insemination. The adaptation of widespread use of artificial insemination (primarily in cattle) in agriculture extended to Britain in the early 1940s and to the USA in the 1950s. Corresponding implementation of artificial insemination in human reproductive medicine closely followed these innovations in the animal husbandry field.

In an effort to summarize the potential risks of therapeutic insemination by donor (TID), including a review of cases of disease attributed to donor semen, a MEDLINE literature search was conducted to identify all published case reports of transmissible diseases occurring in donor semen recipients published in English between 1975 and 1992. The reference list for each article was reviewed to locate additional published case reports. Pertinent case reports were compiled according to disease agent and classified into viral, bacterial and other categories.

The ability to bypass the oviduct by fertilizing human oocytes in vitro and then transferring the ensuing embryos into the uterine environment to produce pregnancies that can be carried to term (assisted reproductive technology, ART) has made the real functional significance of the fallopian tube come under debate. The question has been raised as to whether the oviduct is a simple conduit, providing for the transport of gametes and embryos, or whether it has any functional relevance to early conception. In the field of ART, some reports claim that transfer of embryos either to the uterus or to the oviduct yield similar results, while a greater amount of evidence confirms that tubal transfers are associated with higher pregnancy and take home baby rates, suggesting that unknown factors in the oviduct favour fertilization and embryo viability. This review attempts to provide some answers to questions about the role of oviductal cells in vivo during early conception and in vitro in the field of ART.

The endometrium expresses many of the same integrins displayed by other tissues. Endometrial epithelial cells maintain the ‘classic’ epithelial integrins, including α2, α3, α6, and β4, while the stroma expresses the fibronectin receptor, α5β1. During the menstrual cycle, the endometrium undergoes dynamic changes in morphology in preparation for implantation. With these histological changes are concomitant alterations in integrin expression that appear to ‘frame’ the window of implantation, by the co-expression of glandular αvβ3 and α4β1 during days 20 to 24 of the menstrual cycle. The changes in integrin expression shift from epithelial to stroma predominance late in the menstrual cycle, extending into early pregnancy. Decidual integrins that appear upregulated in pregnancy include α1β1, α3β1, α6β1 and αvβ3. Markers of uterine receptivity hold promise for a better understanding of the implantation process and may help to explain many different types of infertility. These markers will be essential for monitoring and improving infertility therapies. The importance of integrins in the human endometrium now seems well established and promises to be an area of great clinical and basic science activity in the future.

Research methods and knowledge in the field of male reproductive toxicology have gradually improved since reports in the late 1970s on severe impairment of spermatogenesis in workers with occupational exposure to certain chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides (the nematocide 1,2-dibromochloropropan and the insecticide and fungicide chlordecone, but still we have only vague answers to basic questions about the overall significance of the environmental and occupational impact of these compounds on male reproductive capability.