Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Urol. Mar 24, 2015; 4(1): 38-47
Published online Mar 24, 2015. doi: 10.5410/wjcu.v4.i1.38
Genetics and male infertility
Gulay Gulec Ceylan, Cavit Ceylan
Gulay Gulec Ceylan, Department of Medical Genetics, Medical School, Yildirim Beyazit University, 06520 Ankara, Turkey
Cavit Ceylan, Department of Urology, Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Education and Training Hospital, 06520Ankara, Turkey
Author contributions: Ceylan GG and Ceylan C contributed equally to this work.
Conflict-of-interest: There is no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Gulay Gulec Ceylan, MD, Department of Medical Genetics, Medical School, Yildirim Beyazit University, Bilkent, 06520 Ankara, Turkey. gulayceylan23@gmail.com
Telephone: +90-312-2912525 Fax: +90-312-2912728
Received: April 8, 2014
Peer-review started: April 8, 2014
First decision: June 6, 2014
Revised: December 21, 2014
Accepted: January 9, 2015
Article in press: January 12, 2015
Published online: March 24, 2015
Abstract

The goal of this review is to explain the requirement for understanding the genetic structure of infertility arising from male factor and to discuss the essentials of these genetic elements (2). The majority of the population is affected by this disorder caused by male factor infertility (1); but the etiologies are still unknown. After the primary genetic structure in infertile phenotypes is searched, an evaluation can be made. Thus the reasons causing infertility can be discovered and patients can benefit from effective therapies (1). Publications about male infertility within the recent 10 years in the Pubmed database were discussed (1). There are some approachments for describing the function of specific genes, but no adequate study is present to be useful for diagnosing and treating male infertility (1). Male fertility and fertility in offspring of males are considerably affected by the exact transition of epigenetic information (1). When the genetic factors playing a role in male infertility were analysed, significant steps will be taken for treating patients and determining the reasons of idiopathic infertility (1). Developments in technology associated with the impact of genetics may enable to specify the etiology of male infertility by determining specific infertile phenotype marks (1).

Keywords: Male infertility, Chromosomal abnormality, Y chromosome microdeletion, Genetics, Azoospermia factor

Core tip: In the case of being unable to be pregnant after regular unprotected intercourse for one year (6), it is defined as infertility, affecting about 10%-15% of all the couples. Male factor is responsible for about half of cases (6). Genes playing a role in testicular differentiation and full spermatogenesis are found in human Y chromosome (6). The main goal of this study is to mention the various chromosomal abnormalities and deletions of Y chromosome, which cause infertility; for this reason (14) it is important to know the genetic mechanisms that are responsible from the infertility especially for the clinicians.