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MALE FACTOR INFERTILITY

Genitourinary microbial screening for all infertile men?

Genitourinary microorganisms could have detrimental effects on male fertility owing to increased production of reactive oxygen species and generation of oxidative stress, which can lead to sperm DNA damage. Diagnostic genitourinary microorganism screening could help in understanding the reasons for infertility and refine infertility diagnosis and treatment.

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Fig. 1: Oxidative stress and its effects on sperm quality.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank R. Mändar from the University of Tartu for the stimulating discussion and contribution in the manuscript preparation. They are very grateful to A. Sola-Leyva from the University of Granada for his great input in figure preparation. S.A. is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER): grants RYC-2016-21199 and ENDORE SAF2017-87526-R; Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía (B-CTS-500-UGR18 and A-CTS-614-UGR20); and the Junta de Andalucía (PAIDI P20_00158).

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Correspondence to Signe Altmäe.

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EMMA and ALICE: https://www.igenomix.com/

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Altmäe, S., Kullisaar, T. Genitourinary microbial screening for all infertile men?. Nat Rev Urol 19, 199–200 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-022-00573-6

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