Biomarkers in semen/urine from non-obstructive azoospermia patients to predict the presence of testicular spermatozoa and spermatogonia

About half of testicular sperm extraction (TESE) procedures in men with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), including men with Klinefelter syndrome (KS), are unsuccessful. To avoid unnecessary invasive surgery, biomarkers for spermatozoa have been studied and identified. In addition, markers for spermatogonia in testis tissue have been researched. This study aimed to find biomarkers in semen and/or urine of NOA patients to predict the presence of spermatogonia in the testis. This would especially be interesting for young boys. Differentially expressed miRNAs were identified (1) between samples from patients with and those of patients without a positive TESE procedure as well as (2) between TESE negative patients with and those without spermatogonia. A total of ten up-regulated miRNAs (seven in seminal plasma and three in urine) were found in the TESE-negative/spermatogonia-positive group compared to the TESE-negative/spermatogonia-negative group. These miRNAs could become biomarkers for spermatogonia, however, more research is necessary. Overall design: Differential miRNA expression analysis

非阻塞性无精子症（Non-obstructive Azoospermia, NOA）患者（含克莱恩费尔特综合征（Klinefelter Syndrome, KS）患者）中，约半数睾丸精子提取（Testicular Sperm Extraction, TESE）手术以失败告终。为规避不必要的侵入性手术，学界已针对精子相关生物标志物开展研究并完成部分鉴定工作；同时，睾丸组织内精原细胞（spermatogonia）的标志物也被广泛探究。本研究旨在从非阻塞性无精子症患者的精液及/或尿液中筛选生物标志物，以预测其睾丸内精原细胞的存在状况，该检测策略对青少年男性尤为具有应用价值。
研究团队共鉴定出两类差异表达的微小RNA（microRNAs, miRNAs）：其一为睾丸精子提取手术阳性患者与阴性患者的样本间差异miRNA，其二为睾丸精子提取手术阴性患者中，存在精原细胞与不存在精原细胞的样本间差异miRNA。
相较于睾丸精子提取手术阴性且精原细胞检测阴性的患者组，睾丸精子提取手术阴性但精原细胞检测阳性的患者组中共检出10种上调的微小RNA（其中7种源自精浆，3种源自尿液）。上述微小RNA或可作为精原细胞的生物标志物，但仍需开展更多后续研究予以验证。
整体实验设计：微小RNA差异表达分析