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Evaluation of HSPA 2 in fertile and infertile individuals
Author(s) -
Motiei M.,
Tavalaee M.,
Rabiei F.,
Hajihosseini R.,
NasrEsfahani M.H.
Publication year - 2013
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/j.1439-0272.2012.01315.x
Subject(s) - biology , sperm , andrology , western blot , semen , male infertility , hspa2 , infertility , genetics , gene , medicine , peptide sequence , pregnancy
Summary Heat‐shock protein A2 ( HSPA 2) is a testis‐specific member of the HSP 70 family known to correlate with sperm maturity, function and fertility. The aim of this study was to compare expression of HSPA 2 in fertile and infertile individuals using a recently marketed highly purified polyclonal antibody. Thus, after analysing sperm concentration, motility and morphology in semen sample of 49 individuals with male factor infertility and 47 fertile individuals according to World Health Organization guidelines, we evaluated HSPA 2 by microscope florescence, flow cytometry, Western blot and RT ‐ PCR . We observed higher percentage of sperm expressing HSPA 2 in anterior and equatorial regions in fertile than infertile individuals by microscope fluorescence. Percentage of sperm expressing HSPA 2 in two conditions (fixed permeabilised and capacitated) by flow cytometry showed that percentage of HSPA 2‐positive sperm in fixed permeabilised and also capacitated samples was significantly different between fertile and infertile individuals. Western blot analysis of HSPA 2 in semen samples revealed high variation within the fertile and infertile population. The results of RT ‐ PCR revealed higher expression of HSPA 2 in the fertile compared to infertile individuals, but this difference was not significant. According to the results, we suggest that HSPA 2 expression is heterogeneously expressed on different part of fixed permeabilised sperm and its expression is significantly higher in fertile compared to infertile individuals. The surface expression of this protein significantly increases following capacitation in both fertile and infertile individuals. HSPA 2 expression significantly correlates with sperm concentration and morphology. Therefore, aberrant HSPA 2 expression may play an important role in capacitation and fertilisation processes.