Abstract:

Objective To explore the correlation between heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein U （HNRNPU）expression and sperm quality parameters in patients with severe and weak sperm disease，and to explore its effect on the clinical outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection（ICSI）. Methods Totally 500 semen specimens from men with severe oligoasthenozoospermia requiring ICSI treatment （ICSI group）and 500 from normal men（control group）were collected at our clinic. The sperm HNRNPU mRNA，volume，concentration， morphology，total progressive motile sperm count，Ca2 + ionophore（A23187）⁃induced arcrosome reaction（ARIC） rate，sperm DNA fragmentation index（DFI）and sperm nucleation were detected and outcomes in the ICSI group were recorded. Results The ICSI group（0.38 ± 0.04）showed significantly higher expression of HNRNPU mRNA than the control group（0.14 ± 0.03）（P < 0.05），and the normal morphology sperm，ARIC% and maturity in ICSI group were significant lower than those in the control group（P < 0.001）. HNRNPU mRNA was negatively related with total progressive motitle sperm count，normal morphology sperm，ARIC% and maturity，but positively with DFI （P < 0.001）. HNRNPU mRNA was negatively related with normal fertilization（2PN）rate（P < 0.05），but not with cleavage rate or clinical pregnancy rate of ICSI. Conclusion The increase of sperm HNRNPU mRNA expression may be one of the reasons for the onset of severe oligoasthenozoospermia. It can predict the fertility rate of ICSI to a certain extent.

Key words:

HNRNPU, oligozoospermia, asthenozoospermia, ICSI