Detection of Partial AZFc Microdeletions in Azoospermic Infertile Men Is Not Informative of MicroTESE Outcome

BACKGROUND: Microdeletions of the Yq chromosome are among the most frequent genetic etiological factor of male infertility which spans the azoospermia factor regions (AZFa, AZFb and AZFc). Microdeletions are mostly seen in the AZFc region and usually cover genes actively involved in spermatogenesis. Partial AZFc microdeletions may also occur with various spans, namely gr/gr, b2/b3 and b1/b3. It is known that the outcome of microtesticular sperm extraction (TESE), the surgical process for sperm retrieval from the testis in infertile azoospermic men, may be pre- dicted based on the type of AZF microdeletion. We therefore aimed to evaluate the correlation between partial AZFc microdeletions and microTESE results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 200 infertile azoospermic men referred to the Royan Institute were examined for the presence of partial AZFc microdeletions before undergoing microTESE. Partial AZFc micro- deletions were detected by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of seven different sequence-tagged site (STS) markers. The data were analyzed with the Chi-square test. RESULTS: Among the 90 patients (45%) with a positive microTESE outcome, 9 (10%) showed a partial microdeletion in AZFc region. Of the 110 (55%) patients with a negative microTESE outcome, 7 (6.3%) had an AZFc partial micro- deletion. With respect to the span of the microdeletions, among the 200 patients, 11 (5.5%) were gr/gr and 5 (2.5%) were b2/b3. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between the patients with and without partial AZFc microdeletions with respect to microTESE outcome. CONCLUSION: Partial AZFc microdeletions is not a predictor of microTESE outcome in azoospermic men.