ReviewFrontiers in endocrinology2026
Idiopathic male infertility revisited: can redox endophenotypes reframe the 'idiopathic' label?
Review in Frontiers in endocrinology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Oxidative Stress and Male Infertility: A Critical Analysis of Current Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Comparative machine learning analysis identifies random forest and adaboost as superior models for the evaluation of semen quality and reproductive hormones.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Male infertility accounts for nearly half of all infertility cases worldwide, yet up to 30-40% of affected men remain categorized as 'idiopathic', reflecting limitations of conventional diagnostics such as semen analysis, hormonal profiling, karyotyping, and Y-chromosome microdeletion testing. These methods describe sperm quantity and morphology but fail to uncover underlying molecular dysfunctions. Increasing evidence suggests that oxidative stress plays a central role in driving sperm damage, encompassing lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation, mitochondrial dysfunction, DNA fragmentation, and epigenetic instability. Such diverse pathways highlight the inadequacy of a single idiopathic category and necessitate mechanistic stratification. This evidence-based study proposes redox endophenotypes, including hyper- and hypo-oxidative, DNA damage-dominant, mitochondrial dysfunction, epigenetic-redox, and inflammatory-redox phenotypes, as a framework for reclassifying idiopathic male infertility. Each phenotype integrates specific biomarkers, such as oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), isoprostanes, 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine, or advanced oxidation protein products, with distinct functional impairments and clinical outcomes. Redox endophenotyping offers diagnostic refinement, guides personalized antioxidant or adjunctive therapy, and informs clinicians and embryologists for appropriate assisted reproductive technology (ART) protocols by counselling and treating the patient, and tailoring sperm selection and preparation strategies. Future directions include multi-center validation of redox assays, integration with omics and exposome data, and application of artificial intelligence for biomarker-driven algorithms. Recognizing redox endophenotypes not only reduces the reliance on exclusionary 'idiopathic' diagnoses but also advances precision andrology, improving patient diagnostics and care, reproductive outcomes and mitigating intergenerational health risks.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.