Investigation of Ureaplasma infections of semen in fertile and infertile men of Bandar Abbas City
Subject Areas :
Zahra Khashavy
1
,
Mahshad Khalilian
2
,
Neda Fazeli
3
,
Nadia Kazemipoor
4
,
Babak Kheirkhah
5
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
Keywords: Ureaplasma urealyticum, Ureaplasma parvum, Infertility, Semen, PCR,
Abstract :
Ureaplasma has been established as an infecting agent in non-gonococcal urethritis, prostatitis, epididymitis, and infertility. The infection by Ureaplasma urealyticum (U. urealyticum) has adversely affected reproductive health; also, it assists in infertility treatment but later on affects the outcome of pregnancies. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of U. urealyticum and Ureaplasma parvum (U. parvum) in the semen of infertile and healthy men using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 100 male semen samples (50 fertile and 50 infertile) were collected from the OmeLeila specialized hospital, Bandar Abbas City. Semen specimens were taken from infertile patients and health controls, followed by routine andrological evaluation and PCR analysis. DNA extraction was carried out through the SimBioLab kit, and samples were analyzed using a PCR protocol with specific primers for targeted gene detection. PCR analysis identified Ureaplasma in 10% (5/50) of semen samples from infertile patients compared to 2% (1/50) in healthy controls, a statistically significant difference. Compared with healthy subjects, fertile urethral specimens showed decreased seminal volume, sperm concentration, and normal sperm morphology. The infertile patients with a positive PCR to Ureaplasma exhibited both significantly lower semen volume and sperm count and less normal sperm morphology than the PCR-negative infertile patients. Specifically, U. urealyticum was detected in 8 semen samples from infertile men compared to 2 samples from healthy controls, while U. parvum was detected in 2 samples of the infertile group. The findings indicate that U. urealyticum is more commonly found in the semen specimens of infertile males. Additionally, in the PCR-positive group for U. urealyticum, the percentage of normal sperm cells, semen volume, and sperm motility were significantly lower than those in the PCR-positive group for U. parvum.
Keywords: Infertility, PCR, Semen, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Ureaplasma parvum
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