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Megalospermatocytes in the human testis exhibit asynapsis of chromosomes
Author(s) -
Johannisson R.,
Schulze W.,
Holstein A. F.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
andrologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1439-0272
pISSN - 0303-4569
DOI - 10.1046/j.1439-0272.2003.00551.x
Subject(s) - meiosis , biology , prophase , infertility , andrology , fertility , spermatogenesis , synaptonemal complex , genetics , medicine , endocrinology , population , gene , pregnancy , environmental health
Summary. Testis biopsies of three infertile patients were identified, which showed a predomination of megalospermatocytes in the seminiferous tubules. Megalospermatocytes are very large primary spermatocytes indicating a spermatogenic arrest. Because of the high percentage of these germ cells it was possible to apply a whole‐mount spreading technique to investigate the chromosomal pairing behaviour in prophase I of meiosis. It could be shown that most of the megalospermatocytes exhibited extensive chromosomal asynapsis, suggesting that a characteristic meiotic disorder may give rise to reduced fertility, or even infertility.