Publications by authors named "M Merico"

Genetic causes account for 10-15% of male factor infertility, making the genetic investigation an essential and useful tool, mainly in azoospermic and severely oligozoospermic men. In these patients, the most frequent findings are chromosomal abnormalities and Y chromosome long arm microdeletions, which cause a primary severe spermatogenic impairment with classically increased levels of FSH. On the other hand, polymorphisms in the FSH receptor (FSHR) and FSH beta chain (FSHB) genes have been associated with different FSH plasma levels, due to variations in the receptor sensitivity (FSHR) or in the production of FSH from the pituitary gland (FSHB).

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We report the case of a 38-year-old man whose diagnostic workup for primary infertility led to the discovery of obstructive azoospermia due to bilateral papillary cystadenoma of the epididymis (PCE). Given the rarity of this finding and because PCE could be a manifestation of Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL), although the patient had no family or personal history of VHL, the gene was tested, and a known pathogenetic variant (c.464-1G>A; p.

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Article Synopsis
  • Osteoporosis is a common bone disease affecting both men and women, characterized by decreased bone mass and higher fragility, but research on men is limited.
  • A study analyzed 128 males with unexplained low bone mass using next-generation sequencing and found ten rare gene variants related to bone density.
  • Among these, two specific variants were identified as likely pathogenic, suggesting a genetic link to low bone mass and emphasizing the importance of studying the LRP5 gene in such patients.
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Water shortage is an increasing problem affecting crop yield. Accumulation of compatible osmolytes is a typical plant response to overcome water stress. Sucrose synthase 1 (SUS1), and glucan, water dikinase 2 (GWD2) and δ-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase 1 (P5CS1) are members of small protein families whose role in the response of plants to mild osmotic stress has been studied in this work.

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