International Journal of Reproductive BioMedicine
Year:2018 | Volume:16 | Issue:7|Papers Count:8

Background: Intra-ventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is acute cerebral complications of premature infants which may lead to the long-term problems. Objective: According to the role of vitamin D in the stability of the blood vessels, the present study was carried out in order to compare the vitamin D level in the premature infants with or without IVH. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 180 premature infants in the Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad, Iran 97 infants without IVH (53. 9%) and 83 with IVH (46. 1%) through convenience sampling technique in 2015-2017. Serum vitamin D level of funiculus in the two groups was compared. A researcher made questionnaire was used which includes infants’ personal and laboratory information; and their mother's information. Results: Seventy nine percent of infants suffered from vitamin D deficiency in which 33. 9% had a severe deficiency (less than 10 ng/ml), 30% moderate deficiency (10. 1-20 ng/ml), 15% slight deficiency (20. 1-30 ng/ml) and 21. 1% had normal vitamin D (>30. 1 ng/ml). Vitamin D mean± SD of infants in the control group, 23. 71± 12. 98 ng/ml and case group 15. 92± 10. 27 ng/ml (p<0. 001). In total 92. 8% of infants with IVH had levels of vitamin D below30 ng/ml, while this rate was 67% in infants without IVH. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency in the premature infants is very common. Also, the serum vitamin D level in infants with IVH was less than infants without IVH. Therefore, the recommendation of vitamin D may be effective in the prevention of neonatal IVH.

Background: Male senescence may affect testicular function, sperm indices and generation of high levels of oxidants and apoptosis. Objective: This study evaluates the effect of male age on the expression of some apoptosis and oxidative stress markers in seminal fluid of males investigated for infertility in a tertiary health institution in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 122 men aged 20-60 yr who were investigated for infertility and were stratified according to age into four groups. Seminal plasma caspase 3, cytochrome C, and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were assayed by ELISA technique, while manual semen analysis was performed according to WHO standard. Results: Seminal caspase 3, and cytochrome C activity increased while TAC and sperm indices decreased with increasing age. Cytochrome C (r=0. 288; p=0. 002) and caspase 3 (r=0. 250; p=0. 05) correlated significantly with age in normospermia while cytochrome C (r=0. 314; p=0. 02), caspase 3 (r=0. 268; p=0. 05), TAC (r=-0. 342; p=0. 01) and morphology percentage (r=-0. 414; p=0. 002) correlated with age in oligospermic infertile males. Conclusion: The measured apoptotic markers increased with increasing age while TAC and sperm indices decreased with increasing age of subjects evaluated. Although the levels of measured apoptosis and oxidative stress markers correlated with age in normozospermia, the effect on sperm indices was severe among oligospermia compare to normozospermia. Therefore, these markers may be assayed in aged men attending fertility clinics.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) virus can hide in urinary genital tract cells and affect male infertility disorders. Objective: To evaluate frequency of CMV in the semen samples of men with infertility problems referring to a in vitro fertilization (IVF) center in Kerman, Iran and its association with the parameters of semen. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, Real time polymerase chain reaction test was performed for detection of human cytomegalovirus in 100 fertile men compared to 100 infertile men referred to the IVF center of Afzalipour Hospital, Kerman, Iran. Results: Out of 200 samples, 30 samples (15%) were positive for CMV DNA virus (23/100 men (23%) in case group and 7/100 men (7%) in the control group). Sperm counts and motility in the control group were more than the case group (p˂ 0. 0001). There was a significant relationship between the prevalence of CMV infection and male infertility (p˂ 0. 001). Conclusion: Our finding showed that, prevalence of CMV infection was higher in infertile men compared to fertile men and CMV infection can be considered as an important part of male infertility. So; antiviral treatment of positive cases can be effective in improving sperm quality and successful IVF. The relationship between CMV infection in semen and infertility was obtained in previous studies and was confirmed by our study.

Background: Testicular function is modified by maturational gonadostatic control highly susceptible to negative physiologic niche-altering factors like UV-rays. Objective: This study was performed in order to uncover new aspects of Compact Florescent Lamps (CFLs) induced damages on the testicular tissue of rats and evaluating the effect of curcumin on testis of rats after exposure to compact florescent Lamps. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four adult male Albino rats were randomly divided into three groups: control group (ethyl oleate 0. 2 ml, IP, for 45 days, without CFLs exposure), fluorescent group (ethyl oleate 0. 2 ml, IP, daily and treated with 12 hr CFLs exposure for 45 days) and curcumin group (curcumin 20 μ M, IP along with 12 hr CFLs exposure for 45 days). The rats were anesthetized at the end of the experiment. Gonadotropin hormones and prolactin levels were measured; Histopathological and histomorphometrical analysis of the testis was carried out. Results: Results of this study showed that CFLs significantly decreased serum levels of follicle stimulating hormone, prolactin, testicular weight, sperm motility, TDI, and SPI. Furthermore, CFLs had no effect on serum levels of luteinizing hormone and sperm count and also, increased abnormal sperm shapes. Our results also showed that curcumin supplementation following CFLs reversed these alterations. Conclusion: These results strongly suggest that CFLs severely impairs testis while curcumin as an antioxidant had protective effects on undesirable effects in testis induced by CFLs.

Background: Levels of estradiol decreases as women arrive the menopausal transition and enter to a low, steady level during the early postmenopause. In addition, memory dysfunction are highly prevalent during this period. Objective: Our study was designed to determine whether endogenous levels of estradiol are related to cognitive function in postmenopausal. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2015 to February 2016 on 209 healthy postmenopausal women. The women filled out the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scale. Then, estradiol level was tested for association with cognitive function adjusted for factors supposed to confound this association. Results: The prevalence of cognitive dysfunction; MoCA points ≤ 26 in our participants was 62. 7%, and mean± SD of estradiol level was 14. 92± 10. 24pg/ml in participants with cognitive dysfunction in comparison with 21. 67± 14. 92pg/ml in those with normal cognitive function (p<0. 001). There were significant association between MoCA points with estradiol level (p<0. 001) and educational status (p<0. 001). Conclusion: Estradiol replacement therapy in postmenopausal women with low endogenous estradiol levels and decreased cognitive function might be necessary.

Background: Sperm morphology has been strongly linked to fertilization. This makes it an important component in semen analysis. They are usually assessed by world health organization (WHO) standard or Kruger strict criteria in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) centers all over the world. Sperm count, motility, and morphology together form the basis by which patients are allocated into IVF or intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection. Objective: This study aimed to compare fertilization rates in standard IVF from patients with normal sperm count and motility with and without morphological assessment by WHO guideline. Materials and Methods: In this prospective cohort study, sperm count, motility, and morphology of 504 men candidate for IVF program over a three years period in our center were evaluated in two groups: Group A (case group) included men with normal sperm count and motility but with a poor morphology and group B (control group) included men with normal sperm count, motility and morphology evaluated by WHO criteria. Fertilization rate in both groups were then analyzed after 16-18 hr post insemination. Results: Fertilization rate was higher in group B (p=0. 028). Participants in group B, apart from having a normal sperm count (32. 9± 7. 2) and motility (62. 4± 8. 9), have a strict morphology of ≥ 30%. Our result has shown that spermatozoa in group B had a higher fertilization rate (71. 4%). Though the sperm count (36. 4± 6. 7) and motility (66. 3± 7. 4) in group A were slightly higher (p=0. 058 and p=0. 060 respectively) than group B, the fertilization rate was lower. Conclusion: Our study showed that sperm morphology could be a very important consideration before decisions towards allocation of patients into IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Background: Sperm processing methods separate motile sperms with good morphology from dead and abnormal forms of sperms, immature germ cells, and non-sperm cells. Objective: The propose of this study was to compare the efficacy of upstream and swim-up processing techniques to separate sperms with the high quality especially in relation to sperm chromatin integrity. Materials and Methods: This experimental study used semen samples from 60 normozoospermic men. Specimens were divided into equal aliquots for processing by swim up (group A), and upstream (group B) methods and compare with control by raw semen (group C). Sperm concentration, morphology, motility, DNA fragmentation and chromatin maturation were measured in these three groups. Results: The results revealed that sperm concentration in the swim up samples was significantly greater than upstream samples (p≤ 0. 04). as addition, motile sperm recovery including the percentage of progressive motility and a total number of motile sperm was better in the swim-up compared to an upstream method and raw semen (p≤ 0. 001). The cell debris and seminal fluid were equally removed by both methods and the percentage of normal forms was also similar in both procedures (p≥ 0. 4). In addition, sperm DNA fragmentation and chromatin maturation were not significantly different between the three groups (p≥ 0. 1). Conclusion: According to results, apparently the upstream method had no significant efficiency to separate good quality sperms compare to swim up. Therefore, swim up seems to be a simple, inexpensive, reliable and widely available method with an efficient yield to separate motile sperm with good morphology and better chromatin integrity for insemination in the infertility clinics.

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is an infrequent, but one of the most successful bacteria that associated with infertility and are able to spermatozoa immobilization and agglutination. Objective: The aim of present study was to determine the frequency of S. aureus in semen obtained from infertile male patients in northwest Iran. Materials and Methods: Seminal fluids of 100 infertile men were evaluated. Standard semen examination was done according to World Health Organization guidelines. After isolation and identification of S. aureus isolates according to reference methods, determination of susceptibility against important antibiotics and polymerase chain reaction were performed to identify mecA and tst genes. Results: Data obtained from the present study shows that 16% of infertile male patients were colonized by S. aureus. Ten (62. 5%) of the individuals had abnormal seminal fluid sperm motility and morphology and three (18. 8%) of them had an abnormal seminal fluid density, whereas after washing with albumin-saline declined to 5 (31. 3%), 4 (25%) and 1 (6. 3%), respectively. The antibiogram results showed that, except penicillin, other antibiotics have high activity on isolates. Regarding polymerase chain reaction results, mecA sequences were detected in 3 (18. 7%) strains, whilst the tst gene encoding TSST-1 was not detected in any of clinical strains. Conclusion: It would appear that the S. aureus may be an additional negative factor worsening sperm quality and affecting male fertility. Therefore, it demands that all the patients attending in infertility treatment facilities be investigated thoroughly.