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On March 12, an article entitled "Men of Reproductive Age with New Coronavirus Pneumonia Should Have Fertility Checks" sparked widespread concern online.
The author of the article, Tongji Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology said that in theory the new coronavirus infection may also cause testicular damage.
After the article caused widespread concern, thepaper.cn contacted Tongji Hospital and related sources contacted Li Yufeng, a professor at the Reproductive Medicine Center of Tongji Hospital mentioned in the article.
The sources said that the new coronavirus may cause testicular damage in theory. The article was mainly to remind patients post-cure tests and related studies are still being done.
The above article describes that the new coronavirus invades cells through the combination of spike protein (S protein) and host cell angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), causing tissue damage.
In addition to the lung, ACE2 is also expressed in many other organs of the human body, such as the testis, small intestine, kidney, heart, and thyroid.
Among them, the testis expresses a large amount of ACE2, mainly concentrated in testicular spermatogonia, support cells and mesenchymal cells, which are closely related to male reproductive function.
The article pointed out that there is no research to confirm whether the new coronavirus infection damages the testes and affects male fertility, but the new coronavirus is highly similar to SARS virus and its infection invading cell receptor is the same, namely ACE2.
Although no SARS virus has been detected in the testes, SARS infection can still cause severe immune damage to the testes, cause orchitis, and cause extensive destruction of reproductive-related cells.
Therefore, it is theoretically speculated that a new coronavirus infection may cause testicular damage, affecting spermatogenesis and androgen synthesis.
Obstructed spermatogenesis will affect male fertility, and severe cases may cause male infertility; androgen deficiency will affect male secondary sexual characteristics and sexual function.
The article reminds that men with a history of infections, especially men with fertility needs, are advised to perform fertility-related inspections such as semen quality and hormone levels after rehabilitation, so that problems can be identified and dealt with as soon as possible.
The reminder in the article is the team of Professor Li Yufeng of the Reproductive Medicine Center of Tongji Hospital.
On March 12th, a person from Tongji Hospital consulted Li Yufeng and told thepaper.cn that the article made it clear that the new type of coronavirus infection may cause testicular damage "theoretically based." The research is still being done, and it is inconvenient to be interviewed.
Are there any testicular injuries found in patients with new coronavirus pneumonia or cured? The relevant person from the aforementioned Tongji Hospital responded that "(the research) is not so fast and the clinical time is not enough"; the post is mainly to remind patients to have a fertility check after cure.
On February 21st, local time in the United States, a paper published on the preprint website Preprints pointed out that the new coronavirus infection may inhibit the target-related cells' reproduction-related functions, leading to the failure of sperm production.
The authors of both papers are from the institutes affiliated with the National Institutes of Health.
It should be reminded that the papers published on the preprint platform have not been peer reviewed and have not been published in formal journals.
Qi Lihua and Chi Xiaochun of Peking University School of Medicine published a paper "Pathological Changes of Testis Tissue in Male Patients with SARS" in "Basic Medicine and Clinical" on January 30, 2007.
In the study, the testicular tissues of 5 patients with SARS death were subjected to routine histology, TUNEL and immunohistochemical staining. Conclusion SARS causes orchitis in male patients.
On February 25 of the same year, Chi Xiaochun, Qi Lihua, and others published a paper entitled "Causes of orchitis in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome death" in the Journal of Anatomy.
The paper concludes that SARS virus causes orchitis, which is the result of the participation of multiple factors, and autoimmune damage caused by SARS virus may be one of the main reasons.
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