Study on Azoospermia Factors’Candidate Genes in Severe Oligozoospermia and Idiopathic Azoospermia in Chinese Persons

Objective To detect the role of azoospermia factors located on proximal Yq in spermatogenesis among Chinese patients with idiopathic azoospermia and oligozoospermia. Methods Five sequence-tagged sites and SRY regions of the Y chromosome were selected. Forty azoospermia, seven oligozoospermia patiens and 40 fertile men were evaluated using polymerase chain reaction technique. Results Five of 47 patiens (10.64%) with the AZFa or AZFc deletion were found, no deletion in the AZFb or SRY regions were found. No deletion was found in 40 fertile men. Conclusions Microdeletions in Yq is one of the risk factors to the Chinese patients with azoospermia or severe oligospermia; USP9Y gene may be minor to the spermatogenesis in some extent; for more microdeletions were found in the two regions than in AZFb region, analysis of microdeletions should be focused on AZFa and AZFc regions before the treatment of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).