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Vertebrate reproductive science and technology
REVIEW

MicroRNA expression in male infertility

C. F. Burgos A # , R. Cikutovic B # and M. Alarcón https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7596-5382 C *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Physiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Universidad de Concepción, Concepcion, Chile.

B Universidad de Talca, Talca, 360000 Maule, Chile.

C Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Immunohaematology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile.

* Correspondence to: malarcon@utalca.cl

Handling Editor: Tod Fullston

Reproduction, Fertility and Development 34(12) 805-818 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD21131
Published online: 28 June 2022

© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Male infertility is a multifactorial disorder that involves different physiopathological mechanisms and multiple genes. In this sense, we analyse the role of miRNAs in this pathology. Gene expression analysis can provide relevant information to detect biomarkers, signalling pathways, pathologic mechanisms, and potential therapeutic targets for the disease. In this review, we describe four miRNA microarrays related to patients who present infertility diseases, including azoospermia, asthenozoospermia, and oligoasthenozoospermic. We selected 13 miRNAs with altered expressions in testis tissue (hsa-miR-122-5p, hsa-miR-145-5p, hsa-miR-16-5p, hsa-miR-193a-3p, hsa-miR-19a-3p, hsa-miR-23a-3p, hsa-miR-30b-5p, hsa-miR-34b-5p, hsa-miR-34c-5p, hsa-miR-374b-5p, hsa-miR-449a, hsa-miR-574-3p and hsa-miR-92a-3p), and systematically examine the mechanisms of four relevant miRNAs (hsa-miR-16-5p, hsa-miR-19a-3p, hsa-miR-92a-3p and hsa-miR-30b-5p) which we found that regulated a large number of proteins. An interaction network was generated, and its connections allowed us to identify signalling pathways and interactions between proteins associated with male infertility. In this way, we confirm that the most affected and relevant pathway is the PI3K-Akt signalling.

Keywords: asthenozoospermia, azoospermia, biomarkers, male infertility, miRNA, oligoasthenozoospermic, sperm, spermatogenesis.


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