Abstract:

Recently, exchanges between Mexico and Spain have been taking place, not only to enable university student mobility, but also to strengthen teacher and investigator mobility between the different educational and research institutions.

It is well known that interdisciplinary collaboration between research groups enhances investigation and improves knowledge in the different biomedical fields. The Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL) Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, and the University of Valencia (UV) Valencia, Spain, have recently initiated an exchange and cooperation agreement which will increase knowledge through the combination of different biomedical fields.

Research activities in a single institution may be hindered by factors such as the availability of scientific equipment and samples, and the inexperience of investigators in applying research methods and techniques, impeding research protocol development. Collaboration between research teams generates new ideas and knowledge, which would otherwise be difficult to obtain, thus overcoming the limitations of having only one group of investigators.

In this present international collaboration, members of the Molecular Pathology Laboratory of the Pathology Department of the Medical School (UV) with extensive knowledge and experience in the investigation of cancer pathogenesis, through the application of different immunohistochemistry and cytogenetic tests, work together with the Andrology Laboratory of the Medical School (UANL) with wide experience in infectious pathology associated with male infertility research and sperm liquid analysis.

The Andrology Laboratory of the Medical School (UANL) offers its services to the patients of the Andrology Clinic, carrying out seminal and microbiological tests with the purpose of achieving a clinical diagnosis of several pathologies likely to be related with reproductive alterations. In this laboratory the sperm liquid is collected for biochemistry study and conventional and high resolution cytology. In addition, frozen aliquots of this sperm will be used for further studies at the molecular level.

For an exhaustive analysis of the sperm pathology, the laboratory of the Medical School of the University of Valencia embeds the sperm cells in paraffin, elaborating tissue microarrays with the fixed material, developing immunohistochemistry and cytogenetic techniques in order to establish a possible correlation between malignant proliferation phenomena of testicles, azoospermia, infertility, cryptozoospermia (less than 1x1006), severe oligozoospermia, and the presence of markers that indicate infection and toxins generated by infective agents presumably related to cell cycle alterations.

The experience and knowledge of both the educational and research institutions make it possible to initiate a cooperation project in which we aim to combine tools to create new analytic and diagnostic alternatives for the pathologies associated with the male genitourinary and reproductive tract.

Supported by Acción Transversal del Cáncer (ISC III; 606/2007).

Keywords:

international collaboration, exchange agreements, new analytic and diagnostic tools, agarcyto.