ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the breakpoints of the azoospermia factor c (AZFc) microdeletion in Chinese Han population.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We detected 9 sequence tagged sites (sY84, sY86, sY127, sY134, sY152, sY145, sY255, sY254 and sY157) to confirm AZFc microdeletions in the Y chromosome for patients with severe oligozoospermia or non-obstructive azoospermia by multiplex polymerase reaction. To locate the breakpoints of AZFc microdeletions, we analyzed 192 patients with sY255, sY254 and sY157 dele- ted by detecting sY1191, sY1197, sY1054, sY1125 and sY1206, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Five breaking patterns were found in the 192 patients with sY255, sY254 and sY157 deleted, among which the common ones were sY1197(+), sY1191(-), sY1054(-), sY1206(-) and sY1125(+), which accounted fro 54.17% (104/192), sY1197(+), sY1191(+), sY1206(-), sY1054(-) and sY1125(+), which constituted 28.12% (54/192), sY1197(+), sY1191(-), sY1206(-), sY1054(+) and sY1125 (+), which made up 14.58% (28/192). The proximal breakpoint located between sY1197 and sY1191 was 70.83% of AZFc microdeletions, and the distant breakpoint located between sY1054 and sY1125 was 82.29%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There are 5 breaking patterns of AZFc microdeletions in Chinese Han population, the proximal and distant breakpoints mostly located at the replicons b2 and b4, respectively.</p>