“…For instance, Zhao et al found that in iNOA patients, Sertoli cells were basically in stage a and stage b (mentioned above), and they revealed iNOA SCs showed different gene expressions pattern compared with normal testes 55 , which were independently confirmed by Wang et al 76 and Chen et al 56 . In terms of somatic cells, two main somatic cells of the human testis, SCs and LCs, showed similar status in NOA patients, both were immature but with enhanced proliferative/divisive ability 55 , 78 , which were in line with the fact that immature somatic cells have proliferative ability 107 , 108 . Alfano et al further found that in SCOS (the severe pathology of NOA), the transcriptional and phenotypic features of LC were more like pre-pubertal LC, indicating the repressed maturation of LC in NOA 88 .…”