COVID-19 vaccine was launched in India on 16 January 2021, prioritizing health care workers which included medical students. We aimed to assess vaccine hesitancy and factors related to it among medical students in India. An online questionnaire was filled by 1068 medical students across 22 states and union territories of India from 2 February -7 March 2021. Vaccine hesitancy was found among 10.6%. Concern regarding vaccine safety and efficacy, hurried testing of vaccines prior to launch and lack of trust in government agencies predicted COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Presence of risk perception of oneself regarding contracting COVID-19 reduced vaccine hesitancy as well as hesitation in participating in COVID-19 vaccine trials. Vaccine hesitant students were more likely to derive information from social media and less likely from teachers at medical college.Choosing between the two available vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) was considered important by medical students both for themselves and for their future patients. Covishield was preferred to Covaxin by students. Majority of those willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine felt that it was important for them to resume their clinical posting, face-to-face

Testicular maturation arrest is characterized by interruption of germ cell development and differentiation. Genetic factors play important role in the causation of human disease, including male infertility. The objective was to study copy number variations in testicular maturation arrest using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray technique. Conventional cytogenetics, targeted fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and sequence-tagged site (STS) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were used to confirm some of the SNP microarray findings. SNP microarray on 68 cases of testicular maturation arrest detected copy number variations (CNVs) mostly on sex chromosomes involving pseudoautosomal regions (PAR) 1, 2 and 3 as well as azoospermic factors (AZFs) besides three cases of chromosomal abnormalities (two Klinefelter syndromes and one case of dicentric Y). The AZF deletion was observed in 14 (20.6%) cases and the AZFc gain was observed in 6 (8.8%) cases. PAR 1 and 2 CNVs was observed in 5 (7.3%) cases. PAR 3 CNVs was detected in 19 cases and 2 controls. The TSPY2 gene gain (within PAR 3 CNVs) was observed in 16 cases and 1 control. CNV containing autosomal genes possibly associated with male infertility in this study was SPATA31A2-A5 (9p12) in five cases. In this study, SNP microarray identified possible underlying aetiology in 55.9% (38/68) cases besides identifying minimal critical region of AZFc deletion as 0.51 mb (Y:24356128-24873665) involving TTY5, RBMY2FP, RBMY1F, RBMY1J, TTY6 and PRY genes. SNP microarray seems superior, sensitive, specific as well as cost-effective method and has potential to be the first tier investigations to explore underlying genomic factors of testicular maturation arrest. The present study is an attempt to find out probable genomic factors with idiopathic testicular maturation arrest.

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A large number of human diseases arise as a result of genetic abnormalities. With the advent of improved molecular biology techniques, the genetic etiology of male infertility is increasing. The common genetic factors responsible for male infertility are chromosomal abnormalities, Yq microdeletion and cystic fibrosis. These are responsible for approximately 30 percent cases of male infertility. About 40 percent cases of male infertility are categorized as idiopathic. These cases may be associated with genetic and genomic abnormalities. During last few years more and more genes are implicated in male infertility leading to decline in prevalence of idiopathic etiology. In this review we will summarize up to date published works on genetic etiologies of male infertility including our own works. We also briefly describe reproductive technologies used to overcome male infertility, dangers of transmitting genetic disorders to offspring and ways to prevent transmission of genetic disorders during assisted reproduction. At the end we will provide our points on how genomic information can be utilized for prediction and prevention of male infertility in coming years.

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