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Our previous study found that miR-188-3p expression in NOA patients was low. There are potential binding sites between the autophagy gene ATG7 and miR-188-3p. This study aimed to verify the binding site between miR-188-3p and ATG7 and whether miR-188-3p affects autophagy and participates in NOA by regulating ATG7 to influence the autophagy marker genes LC3 and Beclin-1.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Testicular tissue from 16 NOA patients and 16 patients with normal spermatogenesis and 5 cases in each group of pathological sections were collected. High-throughput sequencing was performed to detect mRNA expression differences. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western blotting, immunohistochemical staining and immunofluorescence were used to detect protein localization and expression. Autophagosome changes were detected by electron microscopy. The targeting relationship between miR-188-3p and ATG7 was confirmed by a luciferase assay.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>ATG7 protein was localized in the cytoplasm of spermatogenic cells at all levels, and the ATG7 gene (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.019) and protein (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.000) were more highly expressed in the NOA group. ATG7 expression after overexpression\/inhibition of miR-188-3p was significantly lower (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.029)\/higher (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.021) than in the control group. After overexpression of miR-188-3p, the ATG7 3'UTR-WT luciferase activity was impeded (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.004), while the ATG7 3'UTR-MUT luciferase activity showed no significant difference (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.46). LC3 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.023) and Beclin-1 (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.041) expression in the NOA group was significantly higher. LC3 and Beclin-1 gene expression after miR-188-3p overexpression\/inhibition was significantly lower (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.010 and 0.024, respectively) and higher (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.024 and 0.049, respectively). LC3 punctate aggregation in the cytoplasm decreased after overexpression of miR-188-3p, while the LC3 punctate aggregation in the miR-188-3p inhibitor group was higher. The number of autophagosomes in the miR-188-3p mimic group was lower than the number of autophagosomes in the mimic NC group.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>LC3 and Beclin-1 were more highly expressed in NOA testes and negatively correlated with the expression of miR-188-3p, suggesting that miR-188-3p may be involved in the process of autophagy in NOA. miR-188-3p may regulate its target gene ATG7 to participate in autophagy anDual luciferase experiment<\/jats:p>\n                <jats:p>d affect the development of NOA.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12958-022-00951-0","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,16]],"date-time":"2022-06-16T06:02:39Z","timestamp":1655359359000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["miR-188-3p-targeted regulation of ATG7 affects cell autophagy in patients with nonobstructive azoospermia"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Yuan","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cheng-Cheng","family":"Tian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yun-Yun","family":"Jiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Min-Rui","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xue-Shan","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hai-Xia","family":"Jin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ying-Chun","family":"Su","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiang-Yang","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wen-Bin","family":"Niu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gui-Don","family":"Yao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wen-Yan","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"951_CR1","first-page":"308","volume":"91","author":"TJ Lindsay","year":"2015","unstructured":"Lindsay TJ, Vitrikas KR. 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