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Relationship between sperm telomere length and sperm quality in infertile men
Author(s) -
Darmishonnejad Zahra,
ZareiKheirabadi Farzaneh,
Tavalaee Marziyeh,
ZareiKheirabadi Masoumeh,
Zohrabi Dina,
NasrEsfahani Mohammad Hossein
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
andrologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1439-0272
pISSN - 0303-4569
DOI - 10.1111/and.13546
Subject(s) - sperm , telomere , andrology , dna fragmentation , biology , chromatin , protamine , genetics , medicine , dna , programmed cell death , apoptosis , biochemistry , heparin
Telomeres, noncoding and repetitive DNA sequences play a significant function in chromatin integrity. Telomere length is age‐dependent in somatic cells, while it increases in sperm cell with age. Therefore, we aimed to assess sperm chromatin, leucocyte and sperm telomere length (LTL, STL) in spermatozoon of 38 infertile and 19 fertile men aged between 20 and 50 years. Protamine deficiency (chromomycin A3 test), DNA fragmentation (TUNEL assay), lipid peroxidation (Bodipy probe) and telomere length (quantitative real‐time PCR) were assessed. A significant decrease in mean of sperm concentration and motility and a significant increase in means of sperm abnormal morphology, DNA fragmentation, lipid peroxidation and protamine deficiency were observed in infertile compared with fertile men. In addition, the mean of LTL and STL were significantly shorter in infertile men compared with fertile individuals. We observed significant associations between telomere length with sperm concentration, DNA fragmentation and lipid peroxidation. We hypothesised that increased oxidative stress in spermatozoa of infertile men can result in abnormal packaging of chromatin, damage of DNA and shorter sperm telomere length. Together, these anomalies may account for fertility failure in these individuals.