How does sperm apoptosis affect the outcome of intrauterine insemination and intracytoplasmic sperm injection?

Up to 20% of male infertility is caused by abnormal DNA organization of the sperm and anomalies of the sperm apoptosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the sperm DNA apoptosis and viability in patients undergoing intrauterine insemination (IUI) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). In the second part of the analysis, sperm DNA apoptosis and viability were investigated in patients with oligozoospermia and normospermia respectively. A total of 45 IUI and 38 ICSI patients were included in this study. Annexin V analysis was performed to investigate the sperm viability, and TUNEL assay was used to evaluate the sperm DNA apoptosis. Further investigations using 12 oligozoospermia and 11 control samples for sperm viability and sperm DNA apoptosis at different incubation periods and temperatures were performed. The results of this study showed a negative correlation between the sperm DNA apoptosis in IUI patients, but no relationship was observed for the ICSI patients. The second part of this study showed that incubation of semen samples at 37 degrees C for 3 h has detrimental effects on the sperm DNA integrity. In conclusion, the incubation of semen at high temperatures affects the sperm quality. The results of this study showed that these tests can be beneficial for the infertile couples to achieve pregnancy

Sperm counts in Asian men: Reviewing the trend of past 50 years

Objective: To reveal the trend in alterations of sperm counts in Asian men over the past 50 years.Methods: This study reviewed all the published reports to unveil the specific pattern of alterations of sperm concentrations in Asian men from 1965 till 2015. The time-related changes in sperm concentration were studied using linear regression analyses.Results: The present study elucidated the trend using the reports from Carlsen et al (1965-1990) and non-Carlsen studies published until 2015, on fertile Asian men. In the reports of Carlsen et al, no overall declining trend in Asian men (r = 0.509, P = 0.760) was observed during this tenure, but non- Carsen reports showed a significant time-dependent decline of sperm concentration (r = -0.754, P = 0.005) in Asian men. This present review also showed a mild time-dependant decline in sperm concentration (-0.44×106/mL/year, 95% CI: -0.65 to -0.23; r = -0.473, P = 0.040) which accounted for an overall 22.17% decrease in past 50 years.Conclusions: This study brings to the forefront that sperm concentration among Asian men follows a mild declining trend over the period of 50 years, and further studies addressing the causes of this decline are required

Serum anti-Mullerian hormone and antral follicle count as predictive markers of OHSS in ART cycles

Objective To evaluate predictive role of day-3 serum anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) levels and antral follicle count (AFC) in ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) in patients undergoing IVF/ICSI cycles

Anti-Mullerian hormone and polycystic ovary syndrome: assessment of the clinical pregnancy rates in in vitro fertilization patients

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of serum anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and antral follicle count (AFC) for the prediction of clinical pregnancy rates (CPR) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) undergoing IVF treatment

Different serum anti-Mullerian hormone concentrations are associated with oocyte quality, embryo development parameters and IVF-ICSI outcomes

To evaluate the association between different basal serum levels of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and oocyte-embryo quality and IVF outcomes

The association between homocysteine in the follicular fluid with embryo quality and pregnancy rate in assisted reproductive techniques

To investigate the association between follicular fluid homocysteine levels and embryo quality and pregnancy rates in patients undergoing assisted reproduction

Notch signaling pathway in cumulus cells can be a novel marker to identify poor and normal responder IVF patients

To identify expression of Notch signaling proteins and its ligands in human cumulus cells which were obtained by follicle aspiration and to compare the differences of this protein expression between the normal and poor responder patients

Evaluation of subgroups of the human sperm hypoosmotic swelling test in normozoospermic male cases with recurrent fertilization failure: a prospective case-controlled study

To compare subgroups of the human sperm hypoosmotic swelling test subgroups in both recurrent fertilization negative infertile cases with normal semen analysis and fertilization positive controls

Recurrent Implantation Failure Is More Frequently Seen in Female Patients with Poor Prognosis

Background: This study evaluated the characteristics and results of patients who suffer from recurrent implantation failure (RIF)

Evaluation of citrinin-induced toxic effects on mouse Sertoli cells

Penicillium citrinum-derived mycotoxin citrinin (CTN) is known to be a toxic agent for humans and animals. Previous studies have shown that CTN leads to toxicity in many biological systems; however, a limited number of studies have been performed to demonstrate the harmful effects of CTN on the male reproductive system. In the present study, the effects of CTN on cytotoxicity and apoptosis were examined in Sertoli cells as a model. Sertoli cells were treated with eight different CTN concentrations (from 0 up to 200 mu M, for 6-72 h). Toxic potential of CTN was estimated by measuring metabolic activity (MTT test), DNA synthesis (BrdU test), and cell membrane damage (LDH test) as well as apoptosis and necrosis (via staining with propidium iodide and Hoechst 33342). The results showed that CTN significantly decreased the cell viability and cell proliferation, increased cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and necrosis in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, CTN showed cytotoxicity in Sertoli cells with an IC50 value of 116.5 mu M for 24 h. In conclusion, these findings clearly showed that, CTN affects Sertoli cells even at low concentrations. Thus, as a result of the damage of CTN shown in Sertoli cells, it can be deduced that CTN may also have detrimental effects on the testes