Infertility is sometimes more a man's problem than a woman's, failure of one or both of the testes to descend (cryptorchidism) being the most frequent genital malformation in boys.
Untreated, the undescended testis impairs germ cell development and significantly reduces adult fertility. A-dark spermatogonia are the stem cells for all future spermatozoa, and their depletion can be reliably estimated in resin semithin sections. Additionally, there is an increased risk of testicular preneoplasia in the form of carcinoma in situ (CIS) cells. The authors report how the pathologic biopsy examination of juvenile cryptorchid testes can assess infertility and malignancy risk.
Written by:
Schroeder JA, Siegmund HI, Roesch W, Hadziselimovic F, Hofstaedter F. Are you the author?
Department of Pathology, Central EM Laboratory, Department of Pediatric Urology, Clinic St. Hedwig, University Medical Center Regensburg, Germany.
Reference: Ultrastruct Pathol. 2013 Oct;37(5):373-7.
doi: 10.3109/01913123.2013.818603
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24047353
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