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. Differential miRNA expression analysis