www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget/ Oncotarget, Vol. 7, No. 48 Research Paper Copy number gain of VCX, X-linked multi-copy gene, leads to cell proliferation and apoptosis during spermatogenesis Juan Ji1,2,4,*, Yufeng Qin3,*, Rong Wang5,*, Zhenyao Huang1,2, Yan Zhang1,2, Ran Zhou1,2, Ling Song1,2, Xiufeng Ling4, Zhibin Hu1,6, Dengshun Miao1,5, Hongbing Shen1,6, Yankai Xia1,2, Xinru Wang1,2, Chuncheng Lu1,2 1State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Institute of Toxicology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China 2Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China 3Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA 4Department of Children Health Care, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China 5Research Center for Bone and Stem Cells, Department of Anatomy, Histology, and Embryology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China 6Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China *These authors contributed equally to this work and joint first authors Correspondence to: Chuncheng Lu, email:
[email protected] Keywords: copy number variations, non-obstructive azoospermia Received: April 08, 2016 Accepted: September 25, 2016 Published: October 01, 2016 ABSTRACT Male factor infertility affects one-sixth of couples worldwide, and non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) is one of the most severe forms. In recent years there has been increasing evidence to implicate the participation of X chromosome in the process of spermatogenesis.