Assessment of the frequency of sperm annulus defects in a large cohort of patients presenting asthenozoospermia

Basic and Clinical Andrology

Thassadite Dirami²  Baptiste Rode²  Jean-Philippe Wolf³  Gérard Gacon²  Emmanuel Dulioust³  Aminata Touré¹ 

[1] Department of Genetics, Development and Reproduction, Institut Cochin, INSERM U1016, CNRS UMR8104, Université Paris Descartes, 24 rue du faubourg Saint Jacques, Paris 75014, France

[2] Sorbonne Paris Cité, Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris Descartes, Paris 75014, France

[3] Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, GH Cochin Broca Hôtel Dieu, Laboratoire d’Histologie Embryologie - Biologie de la Reproduction, Paris 75014, France

关键词: SLC26A8;    Asthenozoospermia;    Motility;    Annulus;    Flagellum;    Sperm;   

Others  :  1233157
DOI  :  10.1186/s12610-015-0026-z

 received in 2015-08-25, accepted in 2015-10-22,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

The annulus is a ring-shaped structure located beneath the plasma membrane that connects the midpiece and the principal piece of mammalian sperm flagellum. It has been suggested that the annulus acts as a morphological organizer, guiding flagellum assembly during spermiogenesis, and as a diffusion barrier, confining proteins to distinct compartments of the flagellum in mature sperm. Previous studies on small cohorts of patients have attempted to correlate annulus defects with the occurrence of human asthenozoospermia. An absence of the annulus has been shown to be frequently associated with asthenozoospermia.

Findings

We tried to obtain a more precise estimate of the frequency of annulus defects, by screening a large cohort of 254 men presenting asthenozoospermia (mean progressive motility of 24 %) by the immunodetection of SLC26A8, a transmembrane protein that has been shown to be specifically localized to the annulus. By contrast to previous reports, our results indicate that annulus defects are associated with asthenozoospermia in only 1.2 % of cases.

Conclusions

We conclude that defects or an absence of the annulus are not frequently associated with asthenozoospermia. The use of annulus defects as a diagnostic endpoint in patients is therefore not appropriate.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Dirami et al.

【 图 表 】

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