Male fertility is declining and an underlying cause may be due to environment-epigenetic interactions in developing sperm, yet nothing is known of how the epigenome controls gene expression in sperm development. Histone methylation and acetylation are dynamically regulated in spermatogenesis and are sensitive to the environment. Our objectives were to determine how histone H3 methylation and ac...

Sperm usage by queen honey bees was examined by progeny analyses using six phenotypically distinct genetic markers. No evidence was found for sperm displacement or precedence. All queens used the sperm of all males that inseminated them during all sampling periods. Sperm usage, as measured by phenotypic frequencies, did fluctuate nonrandomly but did not result in abnormally high representation ...

quality spermatozoa, this proportion still remains significant, and one can obviously not guarantee that the sperm cell used for ICSI is euploid. Moreover, the technics used in these papers suffer from some limitations and standardization is lacking. Finally, despite the wide use of ICSI for nearly two decades, and without questioning its interest in male infertility, there is still some concer...

Semen analysis (SA) is the cornerstone for male infertility evaluation. Variations in sperm quantity and quality may make SA an unreliable decision-making tool in providing an insight of infertility (1). Consequently, efforts have been made to upgrade techniques of male fertility analysis. In recent times, primary investigative techniques have centered around assessing sperm capacity, sperm fun...

Identification of molecular markers which can predict the outcome of sperm retrieval non-invasively in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) are valuable in clinical andrology. Jumonji domain-containing 1a (JMJD1A) is a significant epigenetic regulator during spermatogenesis, which plays an important role in the differentiation of post-meiotic germ cells into mature spermatozoa. We th...

BACKGROUND Detection of apoptosis in sperm samples may help evaluate sperm quality. Recently, it has been suggested that in some ejaculated sperm populations, apoptosis is caspase dependent. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of activated caspases and examine possible correlations with apoptosis and sperm parameters in semen samples prepared for IVF. METHODS To detect activ...

BACKGROUND The study is aimed to describe a novel strategy that increases the accuracy and reliability of PGD in patients using sperm donation by pre-selecting the donor whose haplotype does not overlap the carrier's one. METHODS A panel of 4-9 informative polymorphic markers, flanking the mutation in carriers of autosomal dominant/X-linked disorders, was tested in DNA of sperm donors before ...

Background and Aims: Decreased sperm motility and increased level of oxidative stress are major causes of male infertility. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of propolis supplementation on spermatogram and reproductive hormones in asthenozoospermic men. Materials and Methods: In this randomized, double-blind controlled clinical trial, 60 asthenozoospermic men attending an inferti...

There is evidence to show that varicocele repair can improve conventional sperm parameters but the effects on sperm chromatin integrity have not been fully elucidated. We sought to examine the effects of varicocelectomy on sperm maturation, nuclear chromatin integrity and nuclear sulfhydryl groups. We conducted a prospective study of consecutive infertile men (n=29) that underwent a microsurgic...