Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Medical Genetics, National Institute of Medical Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB), Tehran, Iran.
Hum Antibodies. 2021;29(1):17-26. doi: 10.3233/HAB-200438.
Recent advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART) have allowed couples with severe infertility to conceive, but the methods are not effective for all cases. Stem cells as undifferentiated cells which are found in different stages of embryonic, fetal and adult life are known to be capable of forming different cell types, tissues, and organs. Due to their unlimited resources and the incredible power of differentiation are considered as potential new therapeutic biological tools for treatment of infertility. For reproductive medicine, stem cells are stimulated in vitro to develop various specialized functional cells including male and female gametes. The epigenetic patterns can be modified in the genome under certain drugs exposure or lifestyle alterations. Therefore, epigenetics-related disorders may be treated if the nature of the modifications is completely admissible. It is proved that our understanding of epigenetic processes and its association with infertility would help us not only to understand the etiological factors but also to treat some type of male infertilities. Exploration of both genetic and epigenetic variations in the disease development could help in the identification of the interaction patterns between these two phenomena and possible improvement of therapeutic methods.
近年来，辅助生殖技术 (ART) 的进步使严重不孕的夫妇能够怀孕，但这些方法并非对所有病例都有效。干细胞是未分化的细胞，存在于胚胎、胎儿和成人生命的不同阶段，已知能够形成不同的细胞类型、组织和器官。由于它们具有无限的资源和令人难以置信的分化能力，因此被认为是治疗不孕症的潜在新的治疗性生物工具。对于生殖医学，干细胞在体外被刺激以发育各种专门的功能细胞，包括雄性和雌性配子。在某些药物暴露或生活方式改变下，基因组中的表观遗传模式可以被修饰。因此，如果修饰的性质完全可以接受，则可以治疗与表观遗传相关的疾病。事实证明，我们对表观遗传过程及其与不孕的关系的理解不仅有助于我们了解病因因素，还可以治疗某些类型的男性不育症。对疾病发展过程中的遗传和表观遗传变异的探索有助于确定这两种现象之间的相互作用模式，并可能改进治疗方法。
