TY - JOUR
T1 - Ftir spectroscopy to reveal lipid and protein changes induced on sperm by capacitation
T2 - Bases for an improvement of sample selection in art
AU - Pachetti, Maria
AU - Zupin, Luisa
AU - Venturin, Irene
AU - Mitri, Elisa
AU - Boscolo, Rita
AU - D’amico, Francesco
AU - Vaccari, Lisa
AU - Crovella, Sergio
AU - Ricci, Giuseppe
AU - Pascolo, Lorella
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo/Italian Ministry of Health, grant number RC 18/16 and 5mille15D1.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/11/2
Y1 - 2020/11/2
N2 - Although being a crucial step for Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART) success, to date sperm selection is based only on morphology, motility and concentration characteristics. Considering the many possible alterations, there is a great need for analytical approaches allowing more effective sperm selections. The use of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) may represent an interesting possibility, being able to reveal many macromolecular changes in a single measurement in a nondestructive way. As a proof of concept, in this observational study, we used a FTIR approach to reveal features related to sperm quality and chemical changes promoted by in vitro capacitation. We found indication that α-helix content is increased in capacitated sperm, while high percentages of the β-structures seem to correlate to poor-quality spermatozoa. The most interesting observation was related to the lipid composition, when measured as CH2 /CH3 vibrations (ratio 2853/2870), which resulted in being strongly influenced by capacitation and well correlated with sperm motility. Interestingly, this ratio is higher than 1 in infertile samples, suggesting that motility is related to sperm membranes stiffness and lipid composition. Although further analyses are requested, our results support the concept that FTIR can be proposed as a new smart diagnostic tool for semen quality assessment in ART.
AB - Although being a crucial step for Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART) success, to date sperm selection is based only on morphology, motility and concentration characteristics. Considering the many possible alterations, there is a great need for analytical approaches allowing more effective sperm selections. The use of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) may represent an interesting possibility, being able to reveal many macromolecular changes in a single measurement in a nondestructive way. As a proof of concept, in this observational study, we used a FTIR approach to reveal features related to sperm quality and chemical changes promoted by in vitro capacitation. We found indication that α-helix content is increased in capacitated sperm, while high percentages of the β-structures seem to correlate to poor-quality spermatozoa. The most interesting observation was related to the lipid composition, when measured as CH2 /CH3 vibrations (ratio 2853/2870), which resulted in being strongly influenced by capacitation and well correlated with sperm motility. Interestingly, this ratio is higher than 1 in infertile samples, suggesting that motility is related to sperm membranes stiffness and lipid composition. Although further analyses are requested, our results support the concept that FTIR can be proposed as a new smart diagnostic tool for semen quality assessment in ART.
KW - FTIR
KW - Infertility
KW - Lipids
KW - Sperm
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U2 - 10.3390/ijms21228659
DO - 10.3390/ijms21228659
M3 - Article
C2 - 33212829
AN - SCOPUS:85096145318
VL - 21
SP - 1
EP - 16
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
SN - 1661-6596
IS - 22
M1 - 8659
ER -