This issue of HORMONES is dedicated to the Symposium “Endocrine Aspects in Andrology” that took place in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, on 13-15 March, 2015. An educational activity organized by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, it was held under the auspices of the European Academy of Andrology, the Hellenic Society of Andrology, the Hellenic Endocrine Society and the scientific Journal HORMONES.
The symposium was aimed at stimulating interaction between experts in Andrology, Endocrinology and Urology, at advancing scientific knowledge and at providing up-to-date information to young scientists in the field of hormonal regulation of and action on the male reproductive system, as well as their impact on disease.
Participants from all around Europe who attended the symposium had the unique opportunity to engage in scientific edification and discourse with some of the world’s leading experts in the field of Andrology and Endocrinology. All acknowledged that it was an exceptional event with a very high quality of lectures and free interaction between the speakers and the audience that resulted in a truly outstanding Andrology experience.
This issue enables the readers of HORMONES to review 11 of the most important lectures of the symposium. The first four are dedicated to the Physiology of the male reproductive system. The “Short evolutionary history of FSH-stimulated spermatogenesis” examines the gonadotropin dependence of spermatogenesis in several model species, focusing on the shift during evolution from FSH to LH dominance.The next two articles deal with basic (“The Sertoli cell as the orchestra conductor of spermatogenesis”) and clinical (“The Sertoli cell: A novel clinical potential”) aspects of the Sertoli cell, a cardinal player in male reproduction. Finally, in “Testicular descent”, a detailed discussion summarizes the current knowledge on normal testicular descent in the human, including evolutionary aspects and interspecies differences.
Moving from Physiology to clinical issues, “Klinefelter Syndrome and medical treatment” analyzes how specific comorbidities are related to key hormonal aspects of the syndrome, namely hypergonadotropic hypogonadism and testosterone supplementation therapy. The next three reviews are dedicated to the complex interaction between adipose tissue and the reproductive axis. Once again, different aspects are explored, including basic (“The impact of adipose tissue-derived factors on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis”), reproductive (“The impact of obesity on male fertility”) and hormonal aspects (“Hypogonadism as a possible link between metabolic diseases and erectile dysfunction in aging men”).
Finally, the last three articles review special andrological issues, two of them the impact of malignant disease on the male gonad (“Impact of cancer and cancer treatment on male fertility” and “Hypogonadism in young men treated for cancer”) and one the always important topic of “Male contraception”.
We feel sure that our HORMONES readers will enthusiastically welcome this important contemporary and authoritative selection of articles in such a multi-disciplinary field as is Andrology. It is our sincere hope that we will have the opportunity to organize a second symposium on this scientific domain in two years’ time.
Aleksander Giwercman,
Dimitrios G. Goulis,
Ilpo Huhtaniemi,
Christos Tsatsanis
Guest Editors of this current
HORMONES Special Section