The purpose of early medical or surgical treatment of boys with undescended testes is to prevent the development of infertility. However, early and successful surgery cannot prevent infertility in cryptorchid boys who lack type A dark (Ad) spermatogonia.
The purpose of early medical or surgical treatment of boys with undescended testes is to prevent the development ofinf ertility. However, early and successful surgery cannot pre-vent infertility in cryptorchid boys who lack type A dark (Ad) spermatogonia. The aim of this study was to compare the gene expression pattern of patients with completed trans-formation of gonocytes into Ad spermatogonia, associated with low infertility risk, with patients that had failed to un-dergo this process and had a high infertility risk. Genes ex-pressed in the 16 cryptorchid testes were estimated using Affymetrix whole-genome microarray and compared to the expression profiles from four contralateral gonads of boys with unilateral testicular agenesis. Whole-genome expres-sion profiling showed that boys in the high infertility riskgroup according to testicular histology, showed decreasedor lack of expression of most of the genes essential for hypo-thalamo-pituitary-testicular axis function relative to low or intermediate risk group as well as controls. In particular,EGR4, which is involved in regulating the secretion of lutein-izing hormone, was virtually not expressed.
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