Association between sperm morphology and altered sperm microRNA expression

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

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.

• Jezik: Angleški jezik
• Ključne besede: sperm morphology, microRNA, male infertility, teratozoospermia
• Vrsta gradiva: Članek v reviji
• Tipologija: 1.01 - Izvirni znanstveni članek
• Organizacija: MF - Medicinska fakulteta
• Status publikacije: Objavljeno
• Različica publikacije: Objavljena publikacija
• Leto izida: 2022
• Št. strani: 14 str.
• Številčenje: Vol. 11, iss. 11, art. 1671
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-155482
• UDK: 616.6
• ISSN pri članku: 2079-7737
• DOI: 10.3390/biology11111671
• COBISS.SI-ID: 130006787
• Datum objave v RUL: 04.04.2024

Gradivo je del revije

• Naslov: Biology
• Skrajšan naslov: Biology
• Založnik: MDPI
• ISSN: 2079-7737
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523004441

Licence

• Licenca: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Priznanje avtorstva 4.0 Mednarodna
• Povezava: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.sl
• Opis: To je standardna licenca Creative Commons, ki daje uporabnikom največ možnosti za nadaljnjo uporabo dela, pri čemer morajo navesti avtorja.

Sekundarni jezik

• Jezik: Slovenski jezik
• Ključne besede: morfologija semenčic, mikroRNA, moška neplodnost

Projekti

• Financer: ARRS - Agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije
• Številka projekta: J3-2531
• Naslov: Vpliv počasnega zamrzovanja in vitrifikacije na izražanje miRNA v humanih semenčicah

• Financer: Drugi - Drug financer ali več financerjev
• Program financ.: UMC Ljubljana, Tertiary project
• Številka projekta: 20190136