The ICSI procedure is a key method for treating male infertility, but it still has some drawbacks, as sperm selection depends on the subjective assessment of the embryologist, which is not necessarily always the most optimal. Therefore, various methods are being sought to help to choose the best quality sperm for the ICSI procedure. One such method is the MACS method. The results of several studies show that using the MACS procedure for sperm selection can reduce the proportion of sperm with increased DNA fragmentation, improve sperm acrosomal response, sperm mitochondrial membrane potential, embryo implantation, and pregnancy rate. However, little is known about how MACS sperm selection affects sperm quality at the molecular level, especially at the epigenetic level. So we did some research to help answer that question. 800 differentially methylated positions (DMP) and 99 differentially methylated regions (DMR) were detected. Of the 800 DMPs, 392 were hypermethylated and 408 hypomethylated in spermatozoa samples prepared by the DGC method alone compared to spermatozoa samples after additional selection by the MACS procedure. Among the hypermethylated DMPs, there are also sites located on genes that have already been associated with reproduction or infertility. The most interesting among these genes are e.g. IGF2, UBE2W, ISG15, HIF3A and NOTCH1. Also among the hypomethylated positions / genes, there were those that were related to reproduction / infertility such as e.g. PRDM16, ILF2, IFNGR2, FOXL1 and PDGFA. Among other genes where differential methylation of positions was determined were among the most interesting GNB1, PTDSS2, CDH12, NEUROG1, and BCAP31, which have been associated with health problems in the past. Therefore, our work shows that the method of semen preparation can affect the epigenetic status of the sperm population, which is used to fertilize oocytes, which is worrying, as it has already been shown that epigenetic changes can be transmitted to offspring or even over several generations.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 6566828