Perfiles de expresión génica en hombres infértiles que se someten a reproducción asistida

Laburpena

Introduction: Basic sperm analysis has insufficient predictive power on pregnancy achievement in assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs). Molecular parameters such as as mRNA present within spermatozoa are not assessed. Our group listed differentially expressed genes (DEG) from sperm samples (SS) from that achieve pregnancy (group P) vs. those that do not (group NP) using microarray technology in couples undergoing homologous IUI and ICSI. The aim is to use microarray technology to characterise the different gene expression profiles (EP) between SS that achieve pregnancy or not in ICSI and IUI cycles. Material and methods: Ten SS (5 that achieved and 5 that did not achieve pregnancy) were obtained from IP undergoing ICSI and 20 (10 that achieved and 10 did not achieve pregnancy) IAH cycles with oocytes from young donors and their healthy female partners respectively. After freezing aliquots of the SS employed for both treatments and their respective mRNA expression profiles were compared. Finally 4 microarrays were performed in duplicate with sperm samples from group P vs. NP from both techniques and those DEG were evaluated at least twice, with statistically significant differences between P and NP SS for each group. Results: Total number of genes (TNG) in IUI microarray was 19938 and 19229 in ICSI. The total number of DEG (950) in the IAH group was much greater than in the ICSI group (49). Conclusions: These data reveal that molecular features required for pregnancy are different in IUI and ICSI procedures. These differences could be potentially employed to detect ICSI and IUI success markers or to improve pregnancy rates in these procedures.