AJA publishes new findings in basic and clinical (including modern, traditional and epidemiological) research on Andrology.

We have previously suggested that the Toluidine Blue (TB) test can be used for sperm chromatin structure assessment. In this study, we wished to evaluate the clinical applicability of the TB test in assessing male fertility potential using well-defined groups of fertile and infertile men. Sixty-three fertile and 79 infertile men were tested. Infertility thresholds for the proportion of sperm with abnormal [TB dark cells (TBDCs)] and normal [TB light cells (TBLCs)] chromatin structure were set by the ROC curve analysis. Thresholds of 45% TBDC and 20% TBLC were highly predictive for infertility (specificity of the test: 92 and 90%, respectively), but they were poor predictors of the fertility (sensitivity of the test: 42 and 32%, respectively). Odds ratio for infertility was 7.5 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.7–20.8] when the 45% TBDC threshold was used and 4.4 (95% CI: 1.7–11.6) when the 20% TBLC threshold was used. The TB test can be suggested for clinical use as a complementary test for standard semen analysis to diagnose male infertility.

In this cross-sectional study 1852 men aged 40–70 years attending primary health care were invited to fill out the aging male symptoms (AMS) scale. Out of these, 1222 men were found positive for the AMS and agreed to provide blood samples for the general blood test, lipid profile, glucose levels, and assessment of both total and free testosterone (T) levels. Men were screened for the following morbidities and syndromes: dyslipidemia, arterial hypertension, obesity, type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Testosterone deficiency was diagnosed if total T ≤ 3.46 ng/mL or free T ≤ 72 pg/mL. Among all 1222 men with positive AMS, decreased blood testosterone levels were detected in 669 men (55%). A total of 402 men were found healthy and 820 men were detected with different morbidities. Out of 669 men with testosterone deficiency, only 2.8% had no co-morbidities and 97.2% were men with co-morbidities. Testosterone levels were found significantly higher among healthy men (median 4.7 ng/mL) as compared to the men with morbidities (median 2.55 ng/mL, p<.001), adjusted for age. Testosterone deficiency was detected in significantly lower proportion of 402 men without co-morbidities as compared to the 820 men with co-morbidities: in 19 men (4.7) and in 650 men (79.3%, p<.05), respectively.

The objective of a study was to assess the ability of the pre-implantation genetic testing of embryos for aneuploidy (PGT-A) and Endometrial receptivity array (ERA)—alone or in combination to impro...

What are the parameters of semen quality in Baltic men? Combined parameters of sperm concentration, motility and morphology revealed that 11–15% of men had low semen quality, 37–50% intermediate and 38–52% high semen quality. Previous studies have revealed regional differences in semen parameters, and semen quality of Baltic men has been suggested to be better than that of other European men. This was a cross-sectional study of 1165 men aged 16–29 years from Estonia (N = 573), Latvia (N = 278) and Lithuania (N = 314) conducted in 2003–2004. Men from the general population, median age 19.8 years, provided one semen sample each, had blood samples taken, had testis size determined, and provided information on lifestyle. Based on combined data of sperm concentration, sperm motility and morphology the cohort was classified into three categories: low, intermediate or high semen quality. Comparisons between groups (including subgroups of Estonian men of Russian versus Estonian ethnicity) were tested, adjusting for ejaculation abstinence and age. The median sperm concentration of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian populations of Baltic men was 63 mill/ml. Low semen quality was detected in 11–15% of the men, intermediate in 37–50% and high in 38–52%. No crucial differences between national subgroups were detected, except that a higher percentage (9.6%) of the subgroup of Russian Estonians reported having had cryptorchidism compared to the other men (2.5–3.6%, P < 0.001). Smoking had an adverse impact on both sperm concentration and total sperm counts (P < 0.001). The semen quality data were collected >10 years ago. Thus, a recent change in semen quality cannot be excluded. Owing to the study design, it is assumed, but unproven, that the men were representative of the general populations. Some men were very young (16 years), however, this was also the case for other European studies of similar populations. Assessment of sperm motility is associated with inter-observer variation, and no quality control was undertaken for sperm motility assessment to account for that. Thus, estimates of sperm motility should be interpreted with caution. Analysis of the semen variables separately did not identify that a considerable percentage of Baltic men had low semen quality. The combined analysis, however, showed that more than one out of nine men had semen quality at a level indicating reduced fertility chances. We suggest that future studies of semen quality should be carried out reporting both results of single semen parameters and estimates that combine the most frequently assessed variables. The study was funded by the EU fifth framework project Number QLK4-1999-01422 ‘Envir.Repro.Health’ extension to Baltic countries Number QLRT-2001–02911; Estonian Science Foundation, grant numbers 2991 and PUT181. There are no competing interests. N/A.

The increasing frequency of general and particularly male cancer coupled with the reduction in male fertility seen worldwide motivated us to seek a potential evolutionary link between these two phenomena, concerning the reproductive transcriptional modules observed in cancer and the expression of cancer-testis antigens (CTA). The phylostratigraphy analysis of the human genome allowed us to link the early evolutionary origin of cancer via the reproductive life cycles of the unicellulars and early multicellulars, potentially driving soma-germ transition, female meiosis, and the parthenogenesis of polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCCs), with the expansion of the CTA multi-families, very late during their evolution. CTA adaptation was aided by retrovirus domestication in the unstable genomes of mammals, for protecting male fertility in stress conditions, particularly that of humans, as compensation for the energy consumption of a large complex brain which also exploited retrotransposition. We found that the early and late evolutionary branches of human cancer are united by the immunity-proto-placental network, which evolved in the Cambrian and shares stress regulators with the finely-tuned sex determination system. We further propose that social stress and endocrine disruption caused by environmental pollution with organic materials, which alter sex determination in male foetuses and further spermatogenesis in adults, bias the development of PGCC-parthenogenetic cancer by default.