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Globozoospermia is a severe sperm morphological anomaly leading to primary infertility and low fertilisation following intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This phenotype is observed in less than 0.1% of infertile men and is determined by small, round-headed spermatozoa with absence of an acrosomal cap, acrosome protease and also cytoskeletal proteins. Failure of oocyte activation is considered as the main cause of fertilisation failure in these individuals post-ICSI. Therefore, artificial oocyte activation (AOA) along with ICSI is commonly implemented. However, based on previous report, fertilisation rate remains low despite implementation of ICSI-AOA. Therefore, other mechanisms like sperm chromatin packaging and DNA fragmentation may account for low fertilisation and development post-ICSI-AOA. Therefore, this study aims to assess and compare the degree of sperm protamine deficiency and DNA fragmentation in large population of infertile men with total globozoospermia (30 globozoospermic men presenting with 100% round-headed spermatozoa) with 22 fertile individuals using chromomycin A3 and TUNEL assay respectively. Results clearly show that mean of sperm concentration and percentage of sperm motility were significantly lower, while percentage of sperm abnormal morphology, protamine-deficient and DNA-fragmented spermatozoa were significantly higher in infertile men with globozoospermia compared to fertile men. Therefore, increased sperm DNA damage in globozoospermia is likely related to defective DNA compaction and antioxidant therapy before ICSI-AOA could be recommended as an appropriate option before ICSI-AOA., (© 2017 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.)

Assessment of sperm ubiquitination and DNA fragmentation as sperm functional markers are proposed to complement routine semen analysis. This study focuses on the evaluation of these markers in infertile men with varicocele or exposed to occupational background. The results were compared with normozoospermic men. Semen parameters in both groups were lower than those in the control group. Ubiquitination median, as a marker for functionality of the ubiquitin-proteasome system, was also lower in both groups. The ubiquitination median showed a significant positive correlation with motility in both groups, while it showed only a negative correlation with sperm morphology in the varicocele group. DNA fragmentation showed a significant correlation with semen parameters, in total varicocele and also total exposure groups. In conclusion, significant difference of sperm ubiquitination between normal and study groups further validates that sperm ubiquitination as a potential molecular marker for sperm evaluation in addition to routine semen analysis in clinical laboratories., (© 2013 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.)

Summary: Globozoospermia is a severe sperm morphological anomaly leading to primary infertility and low fertilisation following intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This phenotype is observed in less than 0.1% of infertile men and is determined by small, round‐headed spermatozoa with absence of an acrosomal cap, acrosome protease and also cytoskeletal proteins. Failure of oocyte activation is considered as the main cause of fertilisation failure in these individuals post‐ICSI. Therefore, artificial oocyte activation (AOA) along with ICSI is commonly implemented. However, based on previous report, fertilisation rate remains low despite implementation of ICSI‐AOA. Therefore, other mechanisms like sperm chromatin packaging and DNA fragmentation may account for low fertilisation and development post‐ICSI‐AOA. Therefore, this study aims to assess and compare the degree of sperm protamine deficiency and DNA fragmentation in large population of infertile men with total globozoospermia (30 globozoospermic men presenting with 100% round‐headed spermatozoa) with 22 fertile individuals using chromomycin A3 and TUNEL assay respectively. Results clearly show that mean of sperm concentration and percentage of sperm motility were significantly lower, while percentage of sperm abnormal morphology, protamine‐deficient and DNA‐fragmented spermatozoa were significantly higher in infertile men with globozoospermia compared to fertile men. Therefore, increased sperm DNA damage in globozoospermia is likely related to defective DNA compaction and antioxidant therapy before ICSI‐AOA could be recommended as an appropriate option before ICSI‐AOA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In individuals with varicocele, DNA is damaged due to high level of oxidative stress, and varicocelectomy can overcome this effect. Damaged DNA is less liable to DNA methylation, and antioxidant therapy appears to have the potential to reduce sperm oxidative stress and DNA damage and thereby maintain DNA methylation, while effect of varicocelectomy on DNA methylation patterns has remained unclear. In the light of these considerations, we aimed to examine the effect of varicocelectomy on sperm DNA methylation and functional characteristics. Fifty-two men with left-sided varicocele (grade II & III) were included. Sperm parameters, DNA fragmentation, protamine deficiency, oxidative stress and global DNA methylation were evaluated before and 3 months after surgery. Our data show that sperm concentration, percentages of spermatozoon with abnormal morphology, DNA fragmentation, protamine deficiency and oxidative stress significantly improved after surgery. Percentage of sperm motility, global DNA methylation and intensity of DNA methylation also improved after surgery, although the differences were not significant when compared with before surgery. Categorisation of individuals to subgroups revealed that improvement of DNA methylation appears to take place in oligozoospermic individuals, which are more severely affected by state of varicocele. However, this is a preliminary study, and further studies are required to solidify this conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varicocele is a common cause of male infertility and reports indicate that varicocelectomy has a beneficial effect on male fertility. The aims of this study were to evaluate and compare the total acrosin activity along with DNA integrity in semen samples obtained from 70 varicocele individuals with male factors infertility presenting grades II and III varicocele before and after the surgery and 30 fertile individuals without any clinical presentation of varicocele. Total acrosin activity, protamine deficiency, DNA fragmentation, and semen parameters including sperm concentration, motility and sperm morphology were assessed by spectrophotometery, CMA3 staining, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay and WHO criteria, respectively. Total acrosin activity ( P = 0.03), percentage CMA3 positivity ( P = 0.00) and TUNEL-positive spermatozoa ( P = 0.04) were higher in the varicocele individuals before the surgery compared with the fertile individuals; yet, all the aforementioned criteria decreased significantly after surgery ( P < 0.05). The results of this study reveal that DNA fragmentation and protamine deficiency, as negative parameters in fertility, improve post-surgery; however, total acrosin activity as a positive parameter in fertility is higher in the varicocele individuals compared with fertile and decreases to a value close to the fertile control post-surgery. High levels of total acrosin activity in varicocele individuals need more research in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: DNA methylation is an important event in the processes such as embryonic development, genomic imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, and chromosome stability. Studies suggested stress oxidative in infertile men especially in individuals with varicocele is higher than fertile individuals. In this regard, a negative correlation between DNA methylation and stress oxidative in infertile men were reported. In addition sperm DNA damage could result from aberrant chromatin packaging during spermatogenesis, defective apoptosis and/ or excessive production of reactive oxygen species. We aimed to evaluation correlation between stress oxidative, DNA methylation and DNA damage in individual with varicocele. Materials and Methods: Semen sample from 44 individuals with varicocele II, III were collected. Sperm parameters (WHO criteria), protamine deficiency (CMA3 staining), stress oxidative cell (DCFH-DA staining), global methylation DNA (Immuno staining) and DNA damage (TUNEL assay) were evaluated. Results: Correlation analysis revealed that there is a negative significant correlation between DNA methylation and DNA fragmentation ,but not with degree of protamine deficiency and ROS production . Suggesting that in sperm with high DNA damage , percentage DNA methylation is low. Conclusion: DNA hypomethylation in individuals with varicocele prone spenn to DNA damage, independent of ROS production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]