Eelaminejad Zahra, Favaedi Raha, Modarresi Tahereh, Sabbaghian Marjan, Sadighi Gilani Mohammad Ali, Shahhoseini Maryam
Department of Genetics, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Andrology, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
Cell J. 2018 Jan;19(4):660-665. doi: 10.22074/cellj.2018.4409. Epub 2017 Nov 4.
Identification of molecular markers which can predict the outcome of sperm retrieval non-invasively in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) are valuable in clinical andrology. Jumonji domain-containing 1a (JMJD1A) is a significant epigenetic regulator during spermatogenesis, which plays an important role in the differentiation of post-meiotic germ cells into mature spermatozoa. We therefore aimed to examine the potential association between JMJD1A expression and the outcome of sperm retrieval in patients with NOA. Testicular biopsy specimens from 50 NOA patients with either successful sperm retrieval (sperm+, n=22) or failed sperm retrieval (sperm-, n=28) were collected and then examined for JMJD1A expression by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). In addition, conventional clinical parameters including luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, testosterone, age, and testicular volume were compared between the two NOA groups. The expression of JMJD1A in the sperm+ group was significantly higher than in the sperm- group (P<0.001), however, no significant difference was observed between the two groups in clinical parameters. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of JMJD1A expression in predicting the sperm retrieval outcome showed a sensitivity of 90.91% and a specificity of 89.29% with significant discriminatory ability between the sperm+ and sperm- groups [area under the ROC curve (AUC)= 0.91]. This study demonstrates a significant association between the expression of JMJD1A and the success of sperm recovery in patients with NOA, and thus suggests that JMJD1A expression quantification in testicular biopsies may be a valuable biomarker along with conventional parameters in predicting the presence of spermatozoa.
鉴定能够在非梗阻性无精子症（NOA）患者中无创预测取精结果的分子标志物，在临床男科学中具有重要价值。含Jumonji结构域蛋白1a（JMJD1A）是精子发生过程中的一个重要表观遗传调节因子，在减数分裂后生殖细胞分化为成熟精子的过程中发挥重要作用。因此，我们旨在研究JMJD1A表达与NOA患者取精结果之间的潜在关联。收集了50例NOA患者的睾丸活检标本，其中取精成功（精子阳性，n = 22）或取精失败（精子阴性，n = 28），然后通过逆转录定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）检测JMJD1A的表达。此外，比较了两组NOA患者的常规临床参数，包括黄体生成素、卵泡刺激素、睾酮、年龄和睾丸体积。精子阳性组中JMJD1A的表达明显高于精子阴性组（P < 0.001），然而，两组临床参数之间未观察到显著差异。JMJD1A表达预测取精结果的受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线显示，敏感性为90.91%，特异性为89.29%，在精子阳性和精子阴性组之间具有显著的区分能力[ROC曲线下面积（AUC）= 0.91]。本研究表明JMJD1A的表达与NOA患者精子恢复成功之间存在显著关联，因此表明在睾丸活检中对JMJD1A表达进行定量分析可能是一种有价值的生物标志物，与传统参数一起用于预测精子的存在。
