Endocrine Abstracts

Male infertility affects 7% of the general population and in about 50% of cases the aetiology remains unknown. The routine genetic testing is based on karyotype analysis and the screening of Y chromosome deletions. For long time the role of the other sex chromosome, the X chromosome, in spermatogenesis remained largely unexplored. While both sex chromosomes are derived from a pair of autosomes around 300 million years ago, their current size and gene content differs dramatical...

Insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3) is produced by the mature Leydig cells of the adult testes and secreted into the bloodstream in a constitutive manner, where it represents an important biomarker of Leydig cell functional capacity. It specifically activates the G-protein-coupled receptor, RXFP2, which is expressed on Leydig cells themselves, on male germ cells, and on bone cells, where INSL3 promotes healthy bone physiology. Unlike testosterone, INSL3 exhibits negligible within-i...

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