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"The underlying cause of male infertility is unknown for 30 percent of cases. In a pair of new studies, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine determined that the reproductive homeobox (RHOX) family of transcription factors -- regulatory proteins that activate some genes and inactivate others -- drive the development of stem cells in the testes in mice.
The investigators also linked RHOX gene mutations to male infertility in humans. The mouse study is published September 27 by Cell Reports and the human study was published September 15 by Human Molecular Genetics.
"Infertility in general, and especially male fertility, gets little attention considering how common of a problem it is -- about 15 percent of couples are affected, and nearly half of these cases are due to male infertility," said Miles Wilkinson, PhD, professor of reproductive medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and senior author of the Cell Reports study. "That means around 7 percent of all males of reproductive age -- nearly 4 million men in the U.S. -- have fertility problems." Wilkinson is also a co-author of the Human Molecular Genetics study, which was led by Jörg Gromoll, PhD, at the University of Münster in Germany..."
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