Association between sperm morphology and altered sperm microRNA expression

Tomic, Maja (author), Bolha, Luka (author), Pižem, Jože (author), Ban, Helena (author), Vrtačnik-Bokal, Eda (author), Štimpfel, Martin (author)

Evaluation of male infertility has been based on semen analysis for years. As this method can be subjective at times, there is a scientific tendency to discover stable and quantifiable biomarkers. This study included 28 couples who underwent an in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) cycle. The couples were assigned into two groups, according to sperm morphology. Couples where the males were normozoospermic were placed in the control group (15 participants), while couples where males had teratozoospermia were placed in the study group (13 participants). Thirteen candidate miRNAs were selected for qPCR analysis, based on our literature search. We determined significant under-expression of nine miRNAs (miR-10a-5p/-15b-5p/-26a-5p/-34b-3p/-122-5p/-125b-5p/-191-5p/-296-5p and let-7a-5p) in spermatozoa from patients with teratozoospermia compared to the controls, whereas expression levels of four miRNAs (miR-92a-3p/-93-3p/-99b-5p/-328-3p) did not significantly differ between the study and control groups. The expression levels of all 13 included miRNAs were significantly positively correlated with each other and significantly positively associated with spermatozoa morphology, excluding miR-99b-5p. There were no other significant associations between miRNA expression and sperm quality parameters. Only expression levels of miR-99b-5p were significantly positively correlated with good-quality day 3 embryo rate (ρ = 0.546; p = 0.003), while other variables of the IVF/ICSI cycle outcome showed no significant associations with miRNA expression profiles. This is one of the rare studies providing an insight directly into miRNA profiles in regard to sperm morphology. We identified nine miRNAs that could serve as biomarkers of spermatozoa quality in regard to teratozoospermia.

• Language: English
• Keywords: sperm morphology, microRNA, male infertility, teratozoospermia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: MF - Faculty of Medicine
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: 14 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 11, iss. 11, art. 1671
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-155482
• UDC: 616.6
• ISSN on article: 2079-7737
• DOI: 10.3390/biology11111671
• COBISS.SI-ID: 130006787
• Publication date in RUL: 04.04.2024

TOMIC, Maja, BOLHA, Luka, PIŽEM, Jože, BAN, Helena, VRTAČNIK-BOKAL, Eda and ŠTIMPFEL, Martin, 2022, Association between sperm morphology and altered sperm microRNA expression. Biology [online]. 2022. Vol. 11, no. 11,  1671. [Accessed 8 July 2025]. DOI 10.3390/biology11111671. Retrieved from: https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=eng&id=155482

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Biology
• Shortened title: Biology
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2079-7737
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523004441

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: morfologija semenčic, mikroRNA, moška neplodnost

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: J3-2531
• Name: Vpliv počasnega zamrzovanja in vitrifikacije na izražanje miRNA v humanih semenčicah

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Funding programme: UMC Ljubljana, Tertiary project
• Project number: 20190136