Alterations in the Human Blood-Epididymis Barrier in Obstructive Azoospermia and the Development of Novel Epididymal Cell Lines from Infertile Men1
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Post-testicular sperm maturation requires a specific luminal environment in the epididymis that is created, in part, by the blood-epididymis barrier. There is limited information on gene expression in the epididymis of infertile obstructive azoospermia (OA) patients due to the difficulty in obtaining tissues. The objectives of this study were to determine if epididymal tight junction proteins are altered in OA and to develop cell lines that could serve to elucidate alterations in the epididymis of infertile men. Epididymal claudin (CLDN) 1, CLDN4, and CLDN10 mRNA levels were altered in OA downstream from the obstruction site. Epithelial cell lines derived from the caput epididymidis of one OA patient were developed (infertile human caput epididymal cell line [IHCE]). IHCEs were composed of homogenous populations of diploid cells that ultrastructurally resembled in vivo principal cells. The cells expressed cytokeratin, SPAG11B, CLDN2, CLDN3, desmoplakin, and vimentin. However, the cells did not express several other epididymal markers (CRISP1, SPINLW1, NPC2, CD52, or DCXR) or junctional proteins (CDH1, CDH2, CLDN1, CLDN4, CLDN7, or CLDN8). Further studies using IHCE1 and transepithelial resistance indicated that the cells were unable to form tight junctions. Microarray analyses comparing gene expression in IHCE1 and a recently developed fertile human caput epididymal cell line revealed differential expression of genes encoding junctional proteins, cell junction regulators, and epididymal proteins. Together, these data indicate that epididymal cellular junctions appear to be altered in OA.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".