MicroRNAs and Male Infertility

Abstract

Spermatozoan production is tightly controlled by the multistep process of spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis. Physiological and molecular disruption in spermatogenesis can lead to various reproductive disorders including male infertility. Male infertility is associated with various etiologies, but mechanism is not determined yet. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are almost 22 nucleotides long, non-protein coding RNA that play an essential role in posttranscriptional regulations in various biological processes including spermatogenesis. The current review is aimed to summarize the recent literature on the role of miRNAs in male infertility and spermatogenesis and their potential in diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of the disease. miRNAs have shown tremendous potential to be used as diagnostic and prognostic marker and therapeutic target in diseases related to male infertility. Experimental evidence reveals that aberrant expression of miRNAs affects different cell types and different stages of spermatogenesis, which ultimately leads to male infertility. To exploit the full potential of miRNAs, characterization of unidentified miRNAs is required to understand the miRNA-mediated regulatory mechanism related to male infertility.