Molecular and Ultrastructure Studies on Human Sperms in cases of Unexplained Infertility Undergoing Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

Abstract

Infertility is a global health problem, affects 25% of couples. It is described as the incapacity of a couple to conceive a child after 12 months of continued sexual intercourse. Unexplained infertility is described and diagnosed as the patients’ semen analysis is within normal values and the patient’ partner examinations revealed no causes of infertility. The study aimed to find out the causes of unexplained infertility in men using ICSI. This was done through evaluation of the oxidative stress (OS) parameters, semen, molecular analysis (Caspase-3 activity and DNA integrity), detecting the immunological antisperm antibody (ASA) in semen samples; in addition to the ultrastructural evaluations of spermatozoa using TEM examination. Regarding to OS analysis, the results showed significant increases in the concentrations of MDA in the seminal fluids of patients, while SOD and GSH activities revealed significant decreases, comparing to the control value. Catalase contents showed no significant differences. Cspase-3, DNA integrity (genetic diversity) as well as Antisperm antibody (ASA) analysis revealed significant increases in samples of unexplained ferirtility patients, compairing to the control. The electron micrographs showed the appearance of head and tail abnormalities, where there were marked deformities in size of head region, loss of chromatin contents and an appearance of intranuclear cytoplasmic retention (INCR). The axoneme showed incomplete number of microtubules and marked loss of the central axonemal doublets; in addition to the dysplasia and disorganization of the mitochondrial and the the fibrous sheath.