الفهرس 
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Abstract
Infertility is becoming a growing global public health issue according to the World Health Organization, which is warning about the relevant impact that this condition has on society, it has been reported that about 50 million couples worldwide may be affected, with male infertility contributing to half of those cases approximately. Non-obstructive azoospermia is considered the clinically most severe expression of male infertility, affecting around 1% of the male population and 10% of infertile men.
This condition is defined by a complete lack of sperms in the ejaculate without any reproductive tract obstruction, likely related to a failure in spermatogenesis.
Spermatogenesis is a complex process that involves thousands of genes whose expression during different stages is strictly regulated. Small non-coding microRNAs play an important role in the posttranscriptional regulation of mRNA processing during spermatogenesis
Recently, alterations in the expression of microRNAs in both human and animal models have been linked to many forms of disease.
Recently it has been shown that miRNA-429 is up-regulated in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia. These data indicate that the identified miRNAs are not only important as potential biomarkers but are likely to play a crucial role in processes related to spermatogenesis. A better knowledge of the biologic role of the identified miRNAs would in turn contribute to increase their value as biomarkers.
The main purpose of the present study was to assess the miRNA-429 expression profile in seminal plasma of patients with non-obstructive azoospermia and to assess the possible correlations of these expression outcomes with patient’s clinical features and semen analysis in an attempt to