Artículos de revistas
Picomolar gradients of progesterone select functional human sperm even in subfertile samples
Fecha
2013-05Registro en:
Gatica, Laura Virginia; Guidobaldi, Héctor Alejandro; Montesinos, Maria del Mar; Teves, Maria Eugenia; Moreno, Ignacio Alejandro; et al.; Picomolar gradients of progesterone select functional human sperm even in subfertile samples; Oxford University Press; Molecular Human Reproduction; 19; 9; 5-2013; 559-569
1360-9947
CONICET Digital
CONICET
Autor
Gatica, Laura Virginia
Guidobaldi, Héctor Alejandro
Montesinos, Maria del Mar
Teves, Maria Eugenia
Moreno, Ignacio Alejandro
Uñates, Diego Rafael
Molina, R. I.
Giojalas, Laura Cecilia
Resumen
More than 1 million infertility treatments are practiced around the world per year, but only 30% of the couples succeed in taking a baby home. Reproductive technology depends in part on sperm quality, which influences not only fertilization but also embryo development and implantation. In order to provide a better quality sperm subpopulation, innovative sperm selection techniques based on physiological sperm features are needed. Spermatozoa at an optimum state may be selected by following an increasing concentration gradient of picomolar progesterone, a steroid secreted by the cumulus cells at the time of ovulation. In this study we developed a method to recruit spermatozoa at the best functional state, based on sperm guidance toward progesterone. The sperm selection assay (SSA) consists of a device with two wells connected by a tube.One well was filled with the sperm suspension and the other with picomolar progesterone, which diffused inside the connecting tube as a gradient. The sperm quality after the SSA was analyzed in normal and subfertile semen samples. Several sperm parameters indicative of sperm physiological state were determined before and after the SSA: capacitation, DNA integrity and oxidative stress. After the SSA, the mean level of capacitated spermatozoa increased three times in normal and in subfertile samples. The level of sperm with intact DNA was significantly increased, while sperm oxidative stress was decreased after sperm selection. Interestingly, the exposure to a progesterone gradient stimulated the completion of capacitation in some spermatozoa that could not do it by themselves. Thus, the SSA supplies a sperm population enriched with spermatozoa at an optimum physiological state that may improve the assisted reproductive technology outcome.