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Upregulation of the RNF8 gene can predict the presence of sperm in azoospermic individuals

  • Nazari, Majid (Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Babakhanzadeh, Emad (Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Zarch, Mohsen Aghaei (Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Talebi, Mehrdad (Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Narimani, Nima (Department of Urology, Research and Clinical Center for Infertility, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences) ;
  • Dargahi, Mandana (Department of Pathology, Azad University of Medical Science) ;
  • Sabbaghian, Marjan (Department of Andrology, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR) ;
  • Ghasemi, Nasrin (Abortion Research Center, Yazd Reproductive Sciences Institute, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences)
  • Received : 2019.06.20
  • Accepted : 2019.09.05
  • Published : 2020.03.31

Abstract

Objective: In this study, specimens from testicular biopsies of men with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) were used to investigate whether RNF8 gene could serve as a biomarker to predict the presence of sperm in these patients. Methods: Testicular biopsy specimens from 47 patients were classified according to the presence of sperm (positive vs. negative groups) and investigated for the expression of RNF8. The level of RNF8 gene expression in the testes was compared between these groups using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: The expression level of RNF8 was significantly higher in testicular samples from the positive group than in those from the negative group. Moreover, the area under the curve of RNF8 expression for the entire study population was 0.84, showing the discriminatory power of RNF8 expression in differentiating between the positive and negative groups of men with NOA. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that RNF8 expression had a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 84%, with a cutoff level of 1.76. Conclusion: This study points out a significant association between the expression of RNF8 and the presence of sperm in NOA patients, which suggests that quantified RNF8 expression in testicular biopsy samples may be a valuable biomarker for predicting the presence of spermatozoa in biopsy samples.

Keywords

References

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