Comparison of human epididymal gene expression in the caput epididymides of infertile and fertile patients

Caput epididymides biopsies from 4 patients suffering from non-obstructive azoospermia and from 4 patients with active spermatogenesis were compared. 414 genes in the caput epididymides were differentially regulated in infertile men by at least a 2-fold change as compared to the fertile men. Keywords: Comparison of infertile and fertile caput epididymides Comparative caput epididymal gene expression from 4 patients with either active spermatogenesis (reference samples) or non-obstructive azoospermia. On each array, infertile tissue were compared to fertile tissue. Whenever the fertile tissues were labeled with cyanine 5 (see samples entitled "Patients 1 and 2" and "Patients 7 and 8"), the fluorescence ratios were swapped. Data was normalized using a locally weighted regression Lowess method and genes were considered differentially expressed in infertile sample versus fertile sample if there was at least a 2-fold change in 3 patients out of 4.