1. Analysis of 12 kinds of cytokines in seminal plasma by flow cytometry and their correlations with routine semen parameters.
- Author
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Tang SS, Lu JC, Ge YM, Xu YH, Zhao X, and Liang YJ
- Subjects
- Humans, Male, Adult, Interleukin-5 metabolism, Interleukin-5 blood, Interleukin-17 blood, Interleukin-17 metabolism, Interleukin-17 analysis, Sperm Count, Interleukin-6 blood, Interleukin-6 analysis, Interleukin-6 metabolism, Interleukin-8 blood, Interleukin-8 metabolism, Interleukin-8 analysis, Interleukin-12 blood, Interleukin-12 metabolism, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha metabolism, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha blood, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha analysis, Interferon-gamma blood, Interferon-gamma metabolism, Interleukin-1beta metabolism, Interleukin-1beta blood, Interleukin-1beta analysis, Interleukin-10 blood, Interleukin-10 metabolism, Interleukin-10 analysis, Azoospermia metabolism, Azoospermia blood, Interleukin-2 blood, Interleukin-2 metabolism, Interleukin-2 analysis, Interleukin-4 blood, Interleukin-4 metabolism, Interleukin-4 analysis, Oligospermia metabolism, Semen metabolism, Cytokines blood, Cytokines metabolism, Flow Cytometry methods, Sperm Motility, Semen Analysis methods
- Abstract
Objective: To investigate the levels of 12 kinds of cytokines in seminal plasma and their correlations with routine semen parameters., Methods: The remaining seminal plasma samples of 134 patients undergoing routine semen examination were collected for detecting cytokines. The parameters for sperm concentration, percentage of progressively motile sperm (PR), and motility were analyzed by a computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) system. According to the results of sperm concentration, PR and motility, 134 patients were divided into the normal routine semen parameters group, oligoasthenospermia group and azoospermia group. The levels of 12 kinds of cytokines in seminal plasma, including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12P70, IL-17, interferin (IFN)-α, IFN-γ, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, were detected by flow cytometry. Two seminal plasma samples were detected for 10 times, respectively, to calculate the coefficients of variation (CV) of each cytokine. The linear range of each cytokine was measured using the standard, and the correlation coefficient (r) was calculated., Results: The r
2 of 12 kinds of cytokines detected by flow cytometry were all greater than 0.99. The reproducibility of 2 seminal plasma samples showed that the CVs of all cytokines were lower than 15 % except for TNF-α in sample 1 (15.15 %). Seminal plasma IL-6 levels were negatively correlated with semen volume (P < 0.01). Seminal plasma IL-5 levels were positively correlated with sperm concentration (P < 0.01). Seminal plasma IL-8 levels were negatively correlated with sperm motility (P < 0.01). Seminal plasma IL-8, IL-17 and IL-12P70 levels were negatively correlated with sperm PR (P < 0.05). In addition to the significant negative correlation between IL-5 and IL-17 (P < 0.05), there was a significant positive correlation between the majority of other cytokines. The levels of seminal plasma IL-17 and IL-12P70 in the oligoasthenospermia group and IL-1β and IL-12P70 in the azoospermia group were significantly higher than those in the normal routine semen parameters group (P ≤ 0.05), while the levels of IL-10 in the azoospermia group were significantly lower than that in the normal routine semen parameters group (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: There are certain correlations between seminal plasma cytokines and routine semen parameters and strong correlations between different seminal plasma cytokines, suggesting that the imbalance between seminal plasma cytokines may affect sperm quality. However, it still needs to be further confirmed by large samples and multi-center clinical studies and related basic researches., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Xia Zhao reports administrative support and article publishing charges were provided by Special Fund Project for Health Science and Technology Development of Nanjing Health Construction Commission. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2024
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