Din Sameh Fayek GamalEl, Abougabal Khadiga, Saad Hany Mohammed, Mohamed Mohamed Shokr, Ali Amira Mahmoud Mohamed, Sief Ahmed Abo
Department of Andrology and STDs, Faculty of Medicine Kasralainy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Department of Clinical and Chemical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.
J Reprod Infertil. 2022 Oct-Dec;23(4):257-263. doi: 10.18502/jri.v23i4.10810.
Remarkably, the current study is one of the first to deploy galectin-1 (Gal-1) in determining the degree of impairment of spermatogenesis among cases with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) as well as utilizing it as a biomarker to predict the rate of sperm retrieval in these patients. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the seminal plasma and serum levels of Gal-1 in NOA patients as well as their correlations with Johnsen's tubular biopsy scoring (JTBS).
The current case control study included totally 48 patients with NOA whose ages ranged from 24 to 46 years old and 50 age matched healthy controls. Gal-1 levels were measured in both seminal plasma and serum of all subjects by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
A significant negative correlation between seminal plasma levels of Gal-1 and JTBS was detected (r= -0.281, p=0.048) in the NOA cases. Interestingly, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve had demonstrated that the cutoff value of seminal plasma levels of Gal-1 in determining azoospermia was >0.735 and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.858. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, and negative predictive values for seminal plasma levels of Gal-1 were 76, 92, 90.5, and 79.3, respectively. In addition, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, and negative predictive values for serum levels of Gal-1 were 38, 66, 52.8, and 51.6, respectively.
Seminal plasma levels of Gal-1 are higher in NOA men versus healthy controls. Interestingly, negative correlation of seminal plasma levels of Gal-1 with JTBS was determined. Thus, it can be used as a good predictor for NOA cases.
值得注意的是，本研究是首批将半乳糖凝集素-1（Gal-1）用于确定非梗阻性无精子症（NOA）患者精子发生受损程度，并将其作为预测这些患者精子获取率的生物标志物的研究之一。本研究的目的是评估NOA患者精液血浆和血清中Gal-1的水平及其与约翰森肾小管活检评分（JTBS）的相关性。
本病例对照研究共纳入48例年龄在24至46岁之间的NOA患者和50例年龄匹配健康对照。通过酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）测量所有受试者精液血浆和血清中的Gal-1水平。
在NOA病例中，检测到精液血浆中Gal-1水平与JTBS之间存在显著负相关（r = -0.281，p = 0.048）。有趣的是，受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线表明，精液血浆中Gal-1水平在确定无精子症时的截断值>0.735，曲线下面积（AUC）为0.858。精液血浆中Gal-1水平的敏感性、特异性、阳性预测值和阴性预测值分别为76、92、90.5和79.3。此外，血清中Gal-1水平的敏感性、特异性、阳性预测值和阴性预测值分别为38、66、52.8和51.6。
与健康对照相比，NOA男性的精液血浆中Gal-1水平更高。有趣的是，确定了精液血浆中Gal-1水平与JTBS呈负相关。因此，它可以作为NOA病例的良好预测指标。
