Male contraceptives and male infertility treatment – in one receptor
The authors of the article "Androgen action via testicular peritubular myoid cells is essential for male fertility", published in the December issue of The FASEB Journal, identified cells that play a key role in the formation of spermatozoa and, accordingly, ensuring male fertility.
Experts believe that the data obtained open up new prospects for the creation of both contraceptive pills for men and means for the treatment of infertility caused by a small number of spermatozoa. Despite the fact that the researchers obtained their results in experiments on mice, they are likely to be true for other mammals, including humans.
To carry out their work, the authors created a line of knockout mice in which both copies of the gene encoding the androgen receptor were missing in the near-tubular myoid cells of the seminal glands.
(On the micrograph of the cross–section of the vas deferens, the arrows indicate myoid – muscle-like cells capable of contracting. Until now, their only function was considered to be the synthesis of substances forming the intercellular matrix.)
In general, the sexual development of animals without androgen receptors on myoid cells was normal, however, upon reaching puberty, their seminal glands were much smaller in size and contained 7 times (86%) fewer spermatozoa than the testes of normal mice of the control group. And the final cross on the fertility of the knocked-out mice was put by azoospermia (lack of motile spermatozoa).
According to Gerald Weissmann, the editor-in-chief of FASEB, despite the fact that "pills" have become a solution to the problem for women since their invention in the 1960s, no one has yet managed to develop a similar method of contraception for men. The results of the new study not only point to androgen hormones and their receptors as the main target for new contraceptive drugs, but also promise to accelerate the development of new means to stimulate spermatogenesis.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Science Daily: Birth Control Pill for Men? Scientists Find a Hormonal on-and-Off Switch for Male Fertility.
03.12.2009