A multi-regional study on new approaches to investigate the quality of human sperm – including DNA fragmentation, proteomics and metabolomics

A multi-regional study on new approaches to investigate the quality of human sperm – including DNA fragmentation, proteomics and metabolomics

Hiva Alipour, Ingolf Nielsen, Fereshteh Dardmeh, Gerhard Van der Horst

Aalborg University, Aalborg University Hospital, University of the Western Cape

Background: Preliminary data has also shown that there is less fragmented sperm in 2nd and 3rd ejaculates compared to first ones which could be a major factor in determining the pregnancy outcome. Assessing this factor objectively and relating it to other parameters in sperm quality in this study could result in new prediction criteria for the pregnancy outcome. Materials and Methods: As one of the goals, this study will focus on analyzing the seminal fluid from the semen sample using NMR and Mass Spectrometry in research for a correlation between the results of these methods and the DNA fragmentation, Kinetic parameters and finally implantation rates and pregnancy outcome. Results: As another goal in this study we plan to assess whether the second consecutive sample obtained within 12 hours of the first sample has a lower DNA fragmentation rate which will be very important in lowering the number of failed implantations and repeated abortions. Conclusion: Collecting and analyzing the samples from different locations (different countries and continents) using the SCA (Sperm Class Analyzer, Microptic, Spain) which has eliminated the inter technician variation and provides quantitative data and a means to assess samples at the exact same scale, will provide a comparison of the average sperm statistics and also the quality of consecutive sperm samples in these different locations. This would specially prove to be of utmost importance in determining and endorsing a global scale for the computer assisted sperm analysis results which seem to be taking over the old visual (subjective) analysis of sperm among the laboratories and clinics worldwide.

Conference: 14th Royan Congress on Reproductive Biomedicine, At Tehran, Iran, Volume: 7, Suppl. 1