Evaluating the expression levels of ODF1 and ODF2 genes in infertile male sperm cells in comparison to the control group

Abstract

Human infertility is described as the couple's inability to conceive a child following a year of having regular unprotected intercourse. Approximately 15% of couples are affected by infertility worldwide, and about 50% of them are due to male factor infertility. Outer dense fibers (ODFs) are sperm tail cytoskeletal structures. They seem to be important for maintaining the flagellar elasticity and protection of the sperm flagellum against shear forces through epididymal passage and ejaculation. The findings indicate that spermatozoal mRNA might be useful for the assessment of sperm quality and male infertility. Therefore, in this study, we performed quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) on ejaculated spermatozoa to evaluate the expression levels of ODF1 and ODF2 mRNAs in patients with asthenozoospermia and teratozoospermia. Materials and Methods: To evaluate the expression levels of ODF1 and ODF2, we first analyzed their expression in asthenozoospermia and teratozoospermia samples compared to normozoospermia samples from GEO datasets, including GSE6872 and GSE34514. We performed a quantitative PCR (qPCR) experiment using the 20 asthenozoospermic, 20 teratozoospermic, and 20 normozoospermic semen samples. Results: qPCR results show that ODF1 was significantly downregulated in asthenozoospermic samples compared to normozoospermic men (P value = 0.0468). ODF2 transcripts levels were not significantly different between asthenozoospermic and normozoospermic groups (P value = 0.0628). Also, the qPCR analysis found no differences for any of the ODF1 and ODF2 genes between the teratozoospermic and normozoospermic samples (P value = 0.7984, and P value = 0.2164 respectively). It is noteworthy that the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve analysis suggested the high diagnostic value of ODF1 mRNA for the detection of asthenozoospermia (AUC = 0.7070).