Search

Male infertility is a multifactorial disorder with impressively genetic basis; besides, sperm abnormalities are the cause of numerous cases of male infertility. In this study, we evaluated the genetic variants in exons 4 and 5 and their intron-exon boundaries in RABL2B gene in infertile men with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (OAT) and immotile short tail sperm (ISTS) defects to define if there is any association between these variants and human male infertility. To this purpose, DNA was extracted from peripheral blood and after PCR reaction and sequencing, the results of sequenced segments were analyzed. In the present study, 30 infertile men with ISTS defect and 30 oligoasthenoteratozoospermic infertile men were recruited. All men were of Iranian origin and it took 3 years to collect patient’s samples with ISTS defect. As a result, the 50776482 delC intronic variant (rs144944885) was identified in five patients with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia defect and one patient with ISTS defect in heterozygote form. This variant was not identified in controls. The allelic frequency of the 50776482 delC variant was significantly statistically higher in oligoasthenoteratozoospermic infertile men (p

Testicular ischemia is the main consequence of testicular torsion, in both clinical and experimental aspects. Preservation and auto-transplantation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) could be a new treatment for infertility in testicular ischemia following testicular torsion. To apply the idea in this study, animals were randomly divided into four groups of control, sham, with torsion, and with torsion followed by transplantation (TT). Isolated SSCs from neonatal mice were cultured and identified by flow cytometry (C-KIT−, INTEGRIN β1 +) and RT-PCR (Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) for specific spermatogonial cell markers (Oct4, Gfrα-1, Plzf, Vasa, Itgα 6 , and Itgβ 1 ). SSCs were transplanted upon a 2-h testicular torsion in the TT group. Cultured cells were transplanted into ischemia reperfusion testicle 2 weeks post-testicular torsion. Eight weeks after SSCs transplantation, the SSCs-transplanted testes and epididymis were removed for sperm analysis, weight and histopathological evaluation, and pre- and post-meiotic gene expression assessment by qRT-PCR. Our findings indicated that all evaluated parameters (epididymal sperm profile, Johnsen score, Plzf, Gfrα-1, Scp-1, Tekt-1 expressions, and histopathological profile) were significantly decreased following testicular torsion (group 3) when compared to the control group (p ≤ 0.05). However, all abovementioned parameters showed a significant increase/improvement in torsion-transplantation group compared to torsion group. However, these parameters in the TT group were significantly lower in the sham and control groups (p ≤ 0.05). SSCs transplantation could up-regulate the expression of pre- and post-meiotic genes in testicular ischemia, which resulted in improvement of both testicular function and structure after testicular torsion.

To find a relationship between absence of annulus and asthenozoospermia in Iranian men.In the present study, semen samples from 100 asthenozoospermic and 20 normozospermic patients were analyzed for sperm concentration and motility. Spermatozoa were immunostained for the two septin subunits Sept4 and Sept7. The absence of the annulus structure was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy and western blot analysis for septin 4. DNA sequencing for all coding exons of SEPT12 was performed for a patient using peripheral blood sample.Specific antibodies for SEPT4 and SEPT7 consistently labeled the annuli in spermatozoa from all of the 20 normozospermic men, while in one of 100 patients with asthenozoospermia, 75% of sperms lacking septin 4 or septin 7 proteins at the annulus. It was shown that the structural defect in annulus formation is not caused by point mutation of SEPT12 gene.In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrated that the frequency of the absence of annulus in asthenozoospermic sample of Iranian population has a low frequency and could not be assume as a diagnostic marker for classifying asthenozoospermic patients.

Purpose Isolating spermatogonia cells with high purity and viability and achieving better survival rate following cryopreservation Methods Isolating the cells by Magnetic Activating Cell Sorting (MACS) method using anti CD49f (α6 integrin) antibody and Dynabeads and freezing in DMSO-based freezing mediums containing three different FBS concentrations of 50%, 60% and 70%. Results The mean (±SD) purity of the isolated cells was 92.52±3.57 (range 92.43–98.25). The cells frozen in group I, II and III had mean 39.60±1.48 (range 37.98–41.62), 89.05±3.83 (range 80.83–90.33) and 90.52±1.71 (range 89.07–92.52) viability, respectively. Conclusion Higher viable cell counts and purity can be attained by the use of α6 integrin and magnetic beads. After the thawing of spermatogonial cells, optimum viability was achieved in freezing media containing 60% FBS.

Purpose: The aim of this prospective, randomized trial was to evaluate the efficacy of Embryo-Glue® as a human embryo transfer medium in IVF/ICSI cycles. Method: A total of 815 nonselected patients undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment between September 2003 and February 2004 were randomly allocated into the test (417 patients) and the control (398 patients) groups. In both groups, embryos were cultured in G-1™ver 3, supplemented with 10% recombinant human albumin. On the day of embryo transfer (day 3), the best or good quality embryos were selected for intrauterine transfer. In the test group, the selected embryos were treated with EmbryoGlue® prior to the transfer, whereas in the control group they were transferred without any treatment. Results: The patients’ characteristics such as age and the number of ART cycles and also the number of patients in each indication of infertility and the number of embryos selected for transfer were all similar between the two groups. In the test group, the clinical pregnancy rate in the tubal factors and the implantation rate in the tubal factors and recurrent implantation failures increased significantly compared with those in the control group. In the test group, life birth and the triplet delivery rates increased significantly compared with those in the control group. Conclusion: EmbryoGlue® is a useful embryo transfer medium, and at least in some infertile patients it can improve clinical implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates.