Reproductive Medicine Review

Table of Contents - 2003 - Volume 11, Issue 2-3  


THE ROLE OF THE Y CHROMOSOME IN MALE INFERTILITY

NABEEL A AFFARA a1c1
a1 Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Article author query
affara na   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 

It is estimated that as many as 10% of couples worldwide suffer from infertility or reduced fertility, and that in approximately half of these cases this results from defective spermatogenesis. In 60% of these infertile men, the failure to produce mature germ cells (i.e. azoospermia) or the formation of low numbers of sperm (i.e. oligozoospermia) can be ascribed a genetic aetiology. Few of the loci associated with male infertility have been mapped in humans; however, several genetic models of defective germ-cell development and differentiation have been described in mice. The schematic in Figure 1 summarizes the main features of spermatogenesis in humans.


Correspondence:
c1 Address for correspondence: Nabeel A Affara, Reader in Molecular Genetics and Genomics, University of Cambridge, Department of Pathology, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1QP, UK. Tel: +44 1223 333 777; Fax: +44 1223 333 777; email: na@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk

Footnotes

First published 3 January 2001 in Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine: http://www.expertreviews.org/01002319h.htm Updated: 22 March 2004