Circulating microRNAs in seminal plasma as predictors of sperm retrieval in microdissection testicular sperm extraction.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Zhang, Ying Tang, Yuan Huang, Jing Liu, Huang Liu, Xiaohua Zhou, Yu Ma, Chunjie Wang, Qiling Yang, Jigao Sun, Fei Zhang, Xinzong
Copyright Year	2022
Abstract	BackgroundBecause of focal spermatogenesis in some nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) patients, testicular spermatozoa can be retrieved by microdissection testicular sperm extraction (micro-TESE) for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to achieve successful fertilization. Currently, testicular biopsy is widely performed for the prognosis of micro-TESE; however, it might miss foci with active spermatogenesis because of the ‘blind manner’ of puncture, highlighting the needs for biomarkers that could indicate actual spermatogenesis conditions in the testis. Thus, we screened microRNAs in the seminal plasma for potential biomarkers to provide a non-invasive and reliable preoperative assessment for micro-TESE.MethodsWe screened the seminal plasma microRNAs from NOA patients with and without sperm retrieval (n=6 in each group) together with fertile men (n=6) by RNA sequencing, and the selected microRNAs were validated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Next, a predictive model was established by performing ordered logistic regression using the qPCR data of 56 specimens, and the predictive accuracy of this model was evaluated using 40 more specimens in a blind manner.ResultsFour microRNAs (hsa-miR-34b-3p, hsa-miR-34c-3p, hsa-miR-3065-3p, and hsa-miR-4446-3p) were identified as biomarkers, and the predictive model Logit = 2.0881+ 0.13448 mir-34b-3p + 0.58679 mir-34c-3p + 0.15636 mir-3065-3p + 0.09523 mir-4446-3p was established by machine learning. The model provided a high predictive accuracy (AUC =0.927).ConclusionsWe developed a predictive model with high accuracy for micro-TESE, with which NOA patients might obtain accurate assessment of spermatogenesis conditions in testes before surgery.
ISSN	23055839
Volume Number	10
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9073789
Issue Number	7
PubMed reference number	35530943
Journal	Annals of Translational Medicine [Ann Transl Med]
e-ISSN	23055847
DOI	10.21037/atm-21-5100
Language	English
Publisher	AME Publishing Company
Publisher Date	2022-04-01
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0. 2022 Annals of Translational Medicine. All rights reserved.
Subject Keyword	Nonobstructive azoospermia microdissection testicular sperm extraction (micro-TESE) spermatogenesis microRNA biomarker
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Medicine