Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.1.6.4 (chondroitinase)
 2,039 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The proteoglycan of the mast cells from human testes was analyzed using histochemical techniques. Testicular biopsies were obtained from 50 with idiopathic male infertility, 13 with obstructive azoospermia, 6 with varicocele and 14 normal men. To identify the proteoglycan, nitrous acid treatment and chondroitinase ABC digestion were carried out in addition to specific staining procedures using Alcian Blue pH 1.0 and high iron diamine. In all clinical groups, the mast cells which contained heparin were predominant. However, in the idiopathic male infertility group, the mast cells which contained chondroitin sulfate increased significantly. This type of mast cells were rarely seen in normal testicular tissue, whereas in the testes of patients with idiopathic male infertility, 20 percent or more mast cells contained chondroitin sulfate. This observation demonstrates that a change in mast cell subclass occurs in the testes of the patients with idiopathic male infertility and implies that the mast cells play an important role in the etiology of this disorder.
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PMID:[A histochemical study of testicular mast cells from patients with male infertility]. 190 29

Acidic glycoconjugates in the seminiferous tubular walls in the testes from patients with idiopathic male infertility was identified light microscopically with the sensitized high iron diamine method in combination with digestions with chondroitinase ABC, chondroitinase B or testicular hyaluronidase. Tissue specimens were obtained by testicular biopsy from 37 patients with idiopathic male infertility and 9 fertile adult males. Chondroitin sulfate A, B and C were identified in the tubular walls of oligozoospermic patients with idiopathic male infertility irrespective of the thickness of the walls. Similar results were obtained in the tubular walls of the testes from normal males. On the other hand, chondroitin sulfate B was a main acidic glycoconjugate in the tubular walls of the testes from azoospermic patients with idiopathic male infertility irrespective of the thickness of the walls. These findings suggest that the etiological factors of the impaired spermatogenesis in patients with idiopathic male infertility are not only the disturbance of nutritional transport across the seminiferous tubular walls due to peritubular thickening but the functional alterations of the tubular walls associated with changes in components of acidic glycoconjugates in the tubular walls. The pathogenesis of oligozoospermia does not seem to be similar to that of azoosspermia since components of acidic glycoconjugates in the peritubular tissues between the two types of disorders are quite different.
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PMID:[A histochemical study on the testes from patients with idiopathic male infertility: identification of acidic glycoconjugates in the seminiferous tubular walls]. 850 28