Testicular Gene Expression in Cryptorchid Boys at Risk of Azoospermia
Despite timely and successful surgery, 32% of patients withbilateral and 10% with unilateral cryptorchidism will developazoospermia. Cryptorchid boys at risk of azoospermia dis-play a typical testicular histology of impaired mini-pubertyat the time of the orchidopexy. During mini-puberty in-creased gonadotropin and testosterone secretion stimulatetransformation of gonocytes into Ad spermatogonia. In theazoospermia risk group this transformation is to a great ex-tent impaired. This study aimed to analyze data on wholegenome expression signatures of undescended testes at riskof developing azoospermia. Twenty-three testicular biopsiesfrom 22 boys were analyzed (19 testes from 18 boys withcryptorchidism and 4 contralateral descended testes frompatients with testicular agenesis). Expression profiling iden-tified 483 genes not or under-expressed in the azoospermiarisk group compared with the control and low risk for azo-ospermia (LAZR) groups. Annotated loci were associatedwith spermatogenesis. Other significant genes were cellulardefense response genes and hormone-controlled loci in-volved in spermatogenesis.
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