Fertile Ones Research Articles

Thermal architecture of cratonic India and implications for decratonization of the Western Dharwar Craton: Evidence from mantle xenoliths in the Deccan Traps

The mantle beneath the Western Dharwar Craton of the Indian shield comprises a suite of refractory and fertile peridotites and mafic granulites. Detailed petrographic studies coupled with new mineral analysis and geothermobarometric estimations permit to decipher the thermal architecture and get an insight into the evolution of this ancient craton. The refractory rocks are coarse grained harzburgites/dunites, whereas the more fertile ones are at times, porphyroclastic lherzolites. Both show a similar range of equilibration temperatures and pressures indicating intermixing between the two at various levels. The peridotites contain undeformed interstitial REE-enriched clinopyroxene, phlogopite, apatite and carbonates recording post-kinematic modal and cryptic metasomatic events in the Precambrian cratonic lithosphere. Xenoliths of mafic granulite contain layers of clinopyroxenite which also vein the granulite. The P-T range of the granulites overlaps that of the ultramafic rocks.This study in combination with previous investigations reveals a distinct change in the thermal architecture of the craton from a warm/hot geotherm in the Proterozoic to a highly perturbed, still hotter geotherm of the Palaeocene. The Cenozoic thermotectonic rifting episodes heated, refertilized and thinned the bulk of the cratonic lithosphere beneath the Western Dharwar Craton, which has witnessed the most re-activation among cratons of the Indian shield. The waning of the Deccan Traps volcanism in Palaeocene time saw the reworking of ancient cratonic lithosphere and its replacement by non-cratonic, juvenile mantle and magmatic accretions, indicated by compound xenoliths. Differing petrological and geochemical characteristics of refractory xenoliths and fertile lherzolites serve to constrain the relative timing and composition of non-cratonic lithosphere. By the end of the Palaeocene the Western Dharwar Craton was characterised by a thermal high, an attenuated continental lithosphere (60–80 km), and a thin crust (<10- ~ 21 km), reflecting the decratonization of at least the western part of the Western Dharwar Craton.

Defects in microtubule cytoskeleton during microsporogenesis relate to pollen abortion in male-sterile pepper (Capsicum annuum L.)

Microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton of pepper male-sterile microsporocytes during meiosis was examined to characterise the defects during microsporogenesis by comparison with that of fertile ones. In sterile microsporocytes, after prophase I, abnormal arrangement of MTs occurred until the end of meiosis. At metaphase I, about 10% of microsporocytes initially formed abnormal spindles, including monopolar spindle, non-polar spindle with short kinetochore MTs, and atypical bipolar spindles with two half arrays of MTs not on the same plane. Then, the homologous chromosomes could not separate, or they could move towards the two poles with lagged chromosomes at anaphase I. At telophase I, anisotropic short MTs were formed around the two sister nuclei, or the interzonal MTs depolymerised and nuclei agglutinated. About 10% of microsporocytes degraded in advance from metaphase I to telophase I. About 90% of microsporocytes proceeded to meiosis II. At metaphase II, MTs constructed two spindles at a shallow angle with upper and lower assignment, or four spindles with different size. During anaphase II and telophase II, four nuclei were arranged in a non-tetrahedral distribution with unevenly interzonal MTs between two nuclei; or the cell formed more than four nuclei with different size. The cytokinesis formed the aberrant microspores with different size, irregular shape, and even different-sized nuclei. Therefore, the defects of MTs during microsporogenesis in the male-sterile pepper affected the process of meiosis and cytokinesis, leading to some microsporocytes degraded in advance and the microspores at the end of meiosis completely decayed.

Схожість, збережуваність і стан сіянців сосни звичайної (Pinus sylvestris L.), вирощених у контейнерах

На базі двох підприємств Харківського обласного управління лісового та мисливського господарства Державного агентства лісових ресурсів України, а саме ДП "Чугуєво-Бабчанське ЛГ" та "Вовчанське ЛГ" в умовах Лівобережного Лісостепу України визначено ґрунтову схожість сіянців сосни звичайної у контейнерах із різним складом субстрату. Досліджено та узагальнено значення збереженості та життєвого стану сіянців з урахуванням впливу складу субстрату коренезакриваючої грудки контейнера. Дослідним шляхом проаналізовано вісім варіантів субстратів: чотири двокомпонентних торфовмісних та чотири трикомпонентних тирсо-перегноєвмісних. Встановлено комплексну перевагу над контролем за названими вище біометричними показниками варіантів із використанням торфу з базовим ґрунтом в субстраті Тф : Ґ – 1 : 1 та найбільшою мірою варіанта з використанням ґрунту, перегною й тирси у пропорціях частин 6 : 3 : 1. Результати досліджень із визначення оптимального складу субстрату для вирощування сіянців сосни звичайної із закритою кореневою системою підтвердили високі показники схожості, отримані у варіантах з використанням трикомпонентних сумішей перегною, тирси та темно-сірого опідзоленого середньо суглинкового лісового ґрунту на лесах. Серед випробуваних субстратів при об'ємі контейнера 500 см3 за комплексом переваг за досліджуваними показниками схожості, збережуваності та стану торфовмісний варіант із рівними частинами темно-сірого лісового середньо суглинкового опідзоленого ґрунту та торфу (Тф : Ґ – 1 : 1) та варіант трикомпонентної суміші Ґ : П : Т – 6 : 3 : 1 є найбільш збалансованими за основними ґрунтовими параметрами та найбільш оптимальними з досліджуваних для продуктивного росту сіянців сосни звичайної із закритою кореневою системою. Темно-сірі лісові опідзолені середньо суглинкові ґрунти на лесах за рівнем потенційної родючості є одними з найродючіших ґрунтів України. Їх формування відбувалося під достатньо розрідженими широколистяними лісами з добре розвиненим трав'яним покривом на важко глинистих карбонатних лесах. Поєднання таких факторів ґрунтоутворення, як наявність значної кількості високо зольного органічного опаду, а також материнської породи, насиченої кальцієм та глинистими частками, надає темно-сірим опідзоленим ґрунтам високої поживної здатності.

The Montado/Dehesa Cow-Calf Production Systems in Portugal and Spain: An Economic and Resources’ Use Approach

The Montado in Portugal and Dehesa in Spain is a unique agro-silvo-pastoral system designed to overcome food needs in a scarce resource’s environment. The system competitiveness is not clear and it is now under severe threats, caused by extensification or abandonment of less fertile areas and by intensification in more fertile ones. The aim of the undertaken research is to compare the cow-calf production within these systems in Portugal and Spain, identifying their strengths and weaknesses and the main drivers of their evolution, and to compare these systems with other European countries’ systems, ranking their competitiveness and efficiency among other systems in the EU. The research indicates that Montado/Dehesa farms systems are dependent on the type of farming system, its context and management, i.e., on the decision and its context; so, in a context of Mediterranean land system changes, the future of the Montado/Dehesa ecosystem depends on the ability of the cow-calf production systems to face the future and to perceive the modifications needed to overcome new challenges and take advantage of new opportunities.

Prediction of infertile chicken eggs before hatching by the Naïve-Bayes method combined with visible near infrared transmission spectroscopy

The traditional candling methods are very hard to discriminate the infertile chicken eggs from the fertile ones before hatching on the poultry farm. The purpose of this study was to detect infertile chicken eggs before hatching by use of the nondestructive technique of visible near infrared transmission spectroscopy. The Naïve-Bayes method was adopted to link spectral data and qualitative observation values of chicken eggs to build a model. Five preprocessing methods were applied to spectral data to improve the robustness of the models. The internal test method of leave one cross validation and an external test method were employed to test the predictive ability of the established models. Naïve-Bayes with a second derivative by the Savitzky-Golay preprocessing method was selected as the optimal prediction model by comparing with four evaluation parameters of other models. The overall accuracy of the model using the second derivative—Savitzky-Golay preprocessing method was 91.67%, while the sensitivity and the specificity were 95% and 100%, respectively. The prediction ability of the optimal model was assessed by use of unknown new egg samples. The average overall prediction accuracy of the prediction set containing 111 eggs was 89.12%, while the sensitivity and specificity were 88.14 and 90.38%, respectively. Results showed that the prediction model had good predictability and stability. Therefore, visible near infrared transmission spectroscopy would be an appropriate technology to detect infertile chicken eggs before hatching.HighlightsThe infertile chicken eggs from the fertile ones before hatching were discriminatedVisible near infrared spectroscopy first detected infertile chicken eggs before hatching.Naive bayes classifier with five different pre-processing methods were compared.The unknown eggs were predicted by the optimal Naive bayes prediction model.

Characteristics of chosen biometric features of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) due to the age of trees and the forest site type

The dieback of European ash contributes the disappearance of the species from the typical ash sites such as floodplain forests or alder-ash forests. The species occurs more often in moist broadleaved forests and fresh broadleaved forests. Therefore, the main objective of our study was to determine the influence of ash age and the forest site type on the chosen biometric features of dominant and codominant trees. We also aimed to compare the sizes of European ash growing in optimal forest site types with less fertile ones, where it does not occur as the main species. We collected the empirical material from 25 plots representing 4 forest site types: fresh broadleaved forest, moist broadleaved forest, floodplain forest, and alder-ash forest. The research plots were located in the Babki, Konstantynowo, and Łopuchówko Forest Districts, western Poland. The age of ash varied from 52 to 144 years. On each plot, we measured a tree height and a diameter at breast height of 15 dominant and codominant ash trees. Subsequently, we used measured features to calculate the volume of each tree. We carried out the analysis of covariance of diameter at breast height, height, and volume. The analysis showed the strong relationship of examined features with the age of the species and the forest site type. Furthermore, our results indicated the underestimation of the growth possibilities of European ash in fresh broadleaved forest and moist broadleaved forest. In these sites, ash achieved similar sizes in comparison to optimal forest site types, i.e. floodplain forest and alder-ash forest. This result cannot be omitted in forestry practice, especially in silviculture, which should aim to support the natural regeneration of European ash in differentiated site conditions.&#x0D; Keywords: European ash, forest site type, age of a tree, biometric features

DPSA: dense pixelwise spatial attention network for hatching egg fertility detection

Deep convolutional neural networks show a good prospect in the fertility detection and classification of specific pathogen-free hatching egg embryos in the production of avian influenza vaccine, and our previous work has mainly investigated three factors of networks to push performance: depth, width, and cardinality. However, an important problem that feeble embryos with weak blood vessels interfering with the classification of resilient fertile ones remains. Inspired by fine-grained classification, we introduce the attention mechanism into our model by proposing a dense pixelwise spatial attention module combined with the existing channel attention through depthwise separable convolutions to further enhance the network class-discriminative ability. In our fused attention module, depthwise convolutions are used for channel-specific features learning, and dilated convolutions with different sampling rates are adopted to capture spatial multiscale context and preserve rich detail, which can maintain high resolution and increase receptive fields simultaneously. The attention mask with strong semantic information generated by aggregating outputs of the spatial pyramid dilated convolution is broadcasted to low-level features via elementwise multiplications, serving as a feature selector to emphasize informative features and suppress less useful ones. A series of experiments conducted on our hatching egg dataset show that our attention network achieves a lower misjudgment rate on weak embryos and a more stable accuracy, which is up to 98.3% and 99.1% on 5-day and 9-day old eggs, respectively.

Combined sterile insect technique and incompatible insect technique: The first proof-of-concept to suppress Aedes aegypti vector populations in semi-rural settings in Thailand.

BackgroundImportant arboviral diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus infections, are transmitted mainly by the Aedes aegypti vector. So far, controlling this vector species with current tools and strategies has not demonstrated sustainable and significant impacts. Our main objective was to evaluate whether open field release of sterile males, produced from combining the sterile insect technique using radiation with the insect incompatible technique through Wolbachia-induced incompatibility (SIT/IIT), could suppress natural populations of Ae. aegypti in semi-rural village settings in Thailand.Methodology/Principal findingsIrradiated Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti males produced by the SIT/IIT approach were completely sterile and were able to compete with the wild fertile ones. Open field release of these sterile males was conducted in an ecologically isolated village in Chachoengsao Province, eastern Thailand. House-to-house visit and media reports resulted in community acceptance and public awareness of the technology. During intervention, approximately 100–200 sterile males were released weekly in each household. After 6 months of sterile male release, a significant reduction (p<0.05) of the mean egg hatch rate (84%) and the mean number of females per household (97.30%) was achieved in the treatment areas when compared to the control ones.Conclusions/SignificanceOur study represents the first open field release of sterile Ae. aegypti males developed from a combined SIT/IIT approach. Entomological assessment using ovitraps, adult sticky traps, and portable vacuum aspirators confirmed the success in reducing natural populations of Ae. aegypti females in treated areas. Public awareness through media resulted in positive support for practical use of this strategy in wider areas. Further study using a systematic randomized trial is needed to determine whether this approach could have a significant impact on the diseases transmitted by Ae. aegypti vector.

Еколого-біологічна оцінка запилення та фертильність сортів фундука в умовах Правобережного Лісостепу України

Наведено результати досліджень фертильності та життєздатності пилку сортів фундука в умовах Правобережного Лісостепу України. У досліді використано свіжозібраний пилок і через кожні дві години зафіксовано початок та динаміку його проростання. Частка життєздатного пилку визначено через 24 години за кількістю пророслих пилкових зерен у 10 полях зору мікроскопа. Пророслими вважали пилкові зерна, трубки яких мали довжину не менше, ніж діаметр пилкових зерен. Використано пилковий матеріал сортів фундука Лозівський кулеподібний, Дар Павленка, Софіївський 15, Галле, Футкурамі, Черкеський-2. Проведені дослідження свідчать про те, що розміри пилкового зерна більш вирівняні та трапляються від 25,5 до 34 мікрон, за формою фертильні пилкові зерна округлі, рідко зустрічаються трикутні. Стерильні пилкові зерна відрізняються від фертильних менш інтенсивним забарвленням та мають не чітку округлу форму. Після оцінювання якості пилку видно, що частка фертильних пилкових зерен високий і становить від 95,1 % у сорту Лозівський кулеподібний до 45,4 % у сорту Футкурамі, стерильних від 52,4 до 3,5 %, а деформованих у межах 4 %. Внаслідок проведених досліджень встановлено, що для пилку фундука властива досить висока життєздатність і фертильність. Так для максимального проростання пилку оптимальним є середовище з 15 % розчину сахарози, на якому найвища частка пророслого пилку зафіксовано в сорту Лозівський кулеподібний – 69,8 %, найнижчий показник у сорту Черкеський-2-33,1 %. Збільшення концентрації сахарози призводило до зменшення кількості пророслих зерен, пилкові трубки ставали коротшими і викривленими. Найвища частка фертильності пилку спостережено в сорту Лозівський кулеподібний – 95,1 %, найнижчий у сорту Футкурамі – 45,4 %.

Comparison of fertile and sterile male gametogenesis in Cryptomeria japonica D. Don

Cryptomeria japonica D. Don is one of the most important conifers for forestry; however, the pollinosis caused by this species is the most prevalent allergy in Japan. Male-sterile mutants have attracted attention as countermeasures to prevent pollen dispersion. Histological and transcriptomic analyses were conducted on one of the C. japonica male-sterile mutant lines, Toyama 1. Histological examination of pollen development revealed that the lamellar structure of the endexine was not observed in pollen of Toyama 1 and that the microspore was disrupted during the tetrad stage. To determine the mechanism causing male sterility in C. japonica, we analyzed gene expression in normal and sterile male strobili derived from the progeny of Toyama 1. A microarray of 22,882 low-redundancy sequences was designed from C. japonica cDNAs for this experiment. Microarray analysis revealed that the expression pattern of genes in male strobili during pollen development was very similar between fertile and male-sterile individuals. We confirmed 32 genes that were expressed at a lower level in sterile male strobili than in fertile ones at the stage when the disrupted microspores were observed in the sterile mutant. Nine of these 32 genes showed similarity to those involved in carbohydrate metabolic process, phosphorylation, and transmembrane transport. Other genes showed similarity to those involved in regulation of transcription, signal transduction, protein modification, and transport of ions and amino acids. These results suggest that the gene responsible for the Toyama 1 mutant may be involved in the network regulating pollen wall formation.

Low endometrial beta-catenin and cadherins expression patterns are predictive for primary infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss

Inadequate uterine receptivity is responsible for two-third of implanting failures. Aim of the study was to investigate the role of epithelial adherence and tight-junction molecules expressed by human endometrium in predicting womens’ fertility outcome. A total of 76 consecutive women, including 24 fertile (G1), 40 primary infertile (G2), and 12 recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL, G3) women, who underwent diagnostic hysteroscopy plus endometrial biopsy between 2005 and 2016 at the Gynecology Division of Sant’Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, in Italy, were retrospectively identified and included into the study. Endometrial biopsies were assessed for the immunohistochemical expression of beta-catenin (β-catenin), E-cadherin and K-cadherin biomarkers. Expression profiles were compared between the three groups of patients and were correlated with patients’ fertility outcome. In infertile patients there was a significant lower endometrial expression of β-catenin (p = .001), E-cadherin (p = .001) and K-cadherin (p = .002), compared to the fertile ones. Furthermore, β-catenin and E-cadherin intensity gradients of expression at glandular level were found totally reversed in infertile patients. Significant lower expression levels of K-catenin (p = .016) and E-cadherin (p < .0001) at glandular level were found in RPL patients. Results showed that the low endometrial expression of β-catenin, E-cadherin and K-cadherin were associated to fertility-related problems, such as primary intertility and RPL.

Buccal micronucleus cytome biomarkers in Algerian couples with idiopathic infertility

The buccal micronucleus cytome (BMCyt) assay is a useful and a minimally invasive cytogenetic method for measuring genomic damage. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the extent of chromosomal damage in couples with idiopathic infertility using a BMCyt.This study included 54 patients (27 couples) with idiopathic infertility and 30 fertile subjects (15 couples). When evaluated by individual (each subject from the couple is considered separately), the frequencies of micronucleated cells (MNC), total micronuclei (TMN), nuclear buds (NBUD), and binucleated cells (BN) were significantly higher in the infertile individuals than in the fertile ones (p = 0.009, p = 0.009, p = 0.003 and p < 0.0001, respectively). Among the cells reflecting cell death events, condensed chromatin (CC), karyorrhectic (KHC) and pyknotic (PYK) cells were significantly higher in the infertile individuals (p = 0.0001, p = 0.003, p = 0.001, respectively). Identical results were obtained when data were analysed by couple (female + male). The frequencies of MNC, TMN, NBUD, and BN cells were significantly higher in the infertile couples (p = 0.019, p = 0.021, p = 0.013, and p < 0.0001, respectively). Likewise, CC, KHC and PYK cells were significantly higher in the infertile couples (p = 0.002, p = 0.034, p = 0.008, respectively). BN cells showed the most pronounced difference between the fertile and infertile groups. The basal (BAS) and karyolitic (KYL) cells did not show a significant difference. In conclusion, this study showed that, in comparison to controls, couples with idiopathic infertility had significantly higher frequencies of DNA damage biomarkers (MN and NBUD), biomarkers of cytokinesis-failure or arrest (BN cells) and cell death biomarkers (CC, KHC and PYK cells). These results suggest a possible role of chromosomal damage in idiopathic infertility that may be due to an imbalance between DNA damage rates and DNA repair mechanisms.

The correlation between the sociodemographic characteristics and some hormones with the infertility of women and men

Thirty-three infertile women were divided into two groups according to their BMI (21 obese and 12 overweight) there age ranges between (16-41) years, with their husbands twenty-one infertile men and twelve fertile men and their ages range between (23-46) years. In the present study we observed that several indicators affect the fertility such as BMI in infertile obese women which was 34.65 kg/m2. That is higher than that of overweight infertile women that recorded 24.87 kg/m2. obese housewives scored the highest percentage (85.71%) compared with the overweight group (25%), In addition the obese age group between 30-41 years scored (66.67%) compared with the overweight group whose members’ age 16-29.9 years scored 75%. However, drinking cola (soft drink) percentage in obese infertile women was (85.71%) and the tea consumption was higher in overweight group (66.67%). The hormones FSH and LH decrease in obese women, but serum prolactin hormone increased twice about 29.27 ng/ml in comparison with overweight group. Testosterone hormone decreased in obese women but Leptin in obese women (19.52 µg/L) was higher than that of overweight women (11.03 µg/L). Infertile unemployed men got the highest percentage of 66.67%. Besides, the smoker infertile men were higher in percentage (80.95%) compared with fertile men 41.67%. The elevated LH, FSH and prolactin values are significantly high (p&lt;0.01) (7.895 mlU/ml, 9.89 mlU/ml and 13.33 ng/ml) respectively, but the testosterone was significantly low (3.91 ng/dl) in comparison with fertile men(21.76ng/dl). While leptin significantly increased in infertile men more than the fertile ones. These changes in hormones have a great correlation with semen characteristics as the abnormalities in sperms increased to (64.52) and the percentage of rapid, progressive and non -progressive motility decreased, but the immotile motility was highly significant (65.71) in infertile men. As a result, this indicates that the reason of infertility is shared between the wife and husband.

The correlation between the sociodemographic characteristics and some hormones with the infertility of women and men

Thirty-three infertile women were divided into two groups according to their BMI (21 obese and 12 overweight) there age ranges between (16-41) years, with their husbands twenty-one infertile men and twelve fertile men and their ages range between (23-46) years. In the present study we observed that several indicators affect the fertility such as BMI in infertile obese women which was 34.65 kg/m2. That is higher than that of overweight infertile women that recorded 24.87 kg/m2. obese housewives scored the highest percentage (85.71%) compared with the overweight group (25%), In addition the obese age group between 30-41 years scored (66.67%) compared with the overweight group whose members’ age 16-29.9 years scored 75%. However, drinking cola (soft drink) percentage in obese infertile women was (85.71%) and the tea consumption was higher in overweight group (66.67%). The hormones FSH and LH decrease in obese women, but serum prolactin hormone increased twice about 29.27 ng/ml in comparison with overweight group. Testosterone hormone decreased in obese women but Leptin in obese women (19.52 µg/L) was higher than that of overweight women (11.03 µg/L). Infertile unemployed men got the highest percentage of 66.67%. Besides, the smoker infertile men were higher in percentage (80.95%) compared with fertile men 41.67%. The elevated LH, FSH and prolactin values are significantly high (p&lt;0.01) (7.895 mlU/ml, 9.89 mlU/ml and 13.33 ng/ml) respectively, but the testosterone was significantly low (3.91 ng/dl) in comparison with fertile men(21.76ng/dl). While leptin significantly increased in infertile men more than the fertile ones. These changes in hormones have a great correlation with semen characteristics as the abnormalities in sperms increased to (64.52) and the percentage of rapid, progressive and non -progressive motility decreased, but the immotile motility was highly significant (65.71) in infertile men. As a result, this indicates that the reason of infertility is shared between the wife and husband.

The correlation between the sociodemographic characteristics and some hormones with the infertility of women and men

Thirty three infertile women were divided into two groups according to their BMI (21 obese and 12 overweight) there age ranges between (16-41) years, with their husbands twenty one infertile men and twelve fertile men and their ages range between (23-46) years. In the present study we observed that several indicators affect the fertility such as BMI in infertile obese women which was 34.65 kg/m2. That is higher than that of overweight infertile women that recorded 24.87 kg/m2. obese housewives scored the highest percentage (85.71%) compared with the overweight group (25%), In addition the obese age group between 30-41 years scored (66.67%) compared with the overweight group whose members’ age 16-29.9 years scored 75%. However, drinking cola (soft drink) percentage in obese infertile women was (85.71%) and the tea consumption was higher in overweight group (66.67%). The hormones FSH and LH decrease in obese women but serum prolactin hormone increased twice about 29.27 ng/ml in comparison with overweight group. Testosterone hormone decreased in obese women but Leptin in obese women (19.52 μg/L) was higher than that of overweight women (11.03 μg/L). Infertile unemployed men got the highest percentage of 66.67%. Besides, the smoker infertile men were higher in percentage (80.95%) compared with fertile men 41.67%. The elevated LH, FSH and prolactin values are significantly high (p&lt;0.01) (7.895 mlU/ml, 9.89 mlU/ml and 13.33 ng/ml) respectively, but the testosterone was significantly low (3.91 ng/dl) in comparison with fertile men(21.76ng/dl). Whileleptin significantly increased in infertile men more than the fertile ones. These changes in hormones have a great correlation with semen characteristics as the abnormalities in sperms increased to (64.52) and the percentage of rapid, progressive and non -progressive motility decreased, but the immotile motility was highly significant (65.71) in infertile men. As a result this indicates that the reason of infertility is shared between the wife and husband.

The correlation between the sociodemographic characteristics and some hormones with the infertility of women and men

Thirty three infertile women were divided into two groups according to their BMI (21 obese and 12 overweight) there age ranges between (16-41) years, with their husbands twenty one infertile men and twelve fertile men and their ages range between (23-46) years. In the present study we observed that several indicators affect the fertility such as BMI in infertile obese women which was 34.65 kg/m2. That is higher than that of overweight infertile women that recorded 24.87 kg/m2. obese housewives scored the highest percentage (85.71%) compared with the overweight group (25%), In addition the obese age group between 30-41 years scored (66.67%) compared with the overweight group whose members’ age 16-29.9 years scored 75%. However, drinking cola (soft drink) percentage in obese infertile women was (85.71%) and the tea consumption was higher in overweight group (66.67%). The hormones FSH and LH decrease in obese women but serum prolactin hormone increased twice about 29.27 ng/ml in comparison with overweight group. Testosterone hormone decreased in obese women but Leptin in obese women (19.52 μg/L) was higher than that of overweight women (11.03 μg/L). Infertile unemployed men got the highest percentage of 66.67%. Besides, the smoker infertile men were higher in percentage (80.95%) compared with fertile men 41.67%. The elevated LH, FSH and prolactin values are significantly high (p&lt;0.01) (7.895 mlU/ml, 9.89 mlU/ml and 13.33 ng/ml) respectively, but the testosterone was significantly low (3.91 ng/dl) in comparison with fertile men(21.76ng/dl). Whileleptin significantly increased in infertile men more than the fertile ones. These changes in hormones have a great correlation with semen characteristics as the abnormalities in sperms increased to (64.52) and the percentage of rapid, progressive and non -progressive motility decreased, but the immotile motility was highly significant (65.71) in infertile men. As a result this indicates that the reason of infertility is shared between the wife and husband.

MP60-05 MELATONIN HORMONE LEVEL IN SERUM AND SEMINAL PLASMA OF PATIENTS WITH IDIOPATHIC OLIGOASTHENOTERATOZOOSPERMIA

You have accessJournal of UrologyInfertility: Basic Research & Pathophysiology1 Apr 2018MP60-05 MELATONIN HORMONE LEVEL IN SERUM AND SEMINAL PLASMA OF PATIENTS WITH IDIOPATHIC OLIGOASTHENOTERATOZOOSPERMIA Hassan Ibrahim, Moustafa El Taieb, Hanan Fayed, and Nahed Fares Hassan IbrahimHassan Ibrahim More articles by this author , Moustafa El TaiebMoustafa El Taieb More articles by this author , Hanan FayedHanan Fayed More articles by this author , and Nahed FaresNahed Fares More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2018.02.1897AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Melatonin is a sleep inducing hormone and a hormone of darkness, secreted by the pineal gland. It has a role in idiopathic oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (iOAT) male infertility by its potent antioxidant effect. We aim to estimate seminal plasma and serum melatonin levels in iOAT patients compared with normal fertile male patients and the effect of exposure to light at night on their semen parameters. METHODS A clinical cross- sectional case control study, in which semen and serum samples were collected from 50 infertile men ( 34 men exposed to light at night an 16 men not exposed) and 50 fertile ones. WHO, 2010 semen analysis was done. Serum and seminal plasma were assessed for melatonin level using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS There was significant decrease in seminal plasma and serum melatonin levels in iOAT patients (P=0.0004,P=0.01) respectively in comparative to control group (Table a). Statistically significant decrease was found in the serum and seminal plasma levels of melatonin hormone in exposed cases to light at night (night shift work) than non-exposed cases (P< 0.0001), (P= 0.02) respectively (Table b). There was also a negative significant correlation between semen parameters of iOAT patients (concentration, motility and abnormal forms) and exposure to light at night (p<0.0001), (p=0.04) and (p=0.04) respectively. CONCLUSIONS Darkening and sleep at night may improve semen parameters in iOAT patients via the antioxidant activity of melatonin hormone in the serum and seminal plasma as demonstrated by the negative effect of exposure to light at night on serum and seminal plasma level of melatonin and consequently on the semen parameters. © 2018FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 199Issue 4SApril 2018Page: e791 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2018MetricsAuthor Information Hassan Ibrahim More articles by this author Moustafa El Taieb More articles by this author Hanan Fayed More articles by this author Nahed Fares More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...

Association of asymptomatic Chlamydia trachomatis infection with male infertility and the effect of antibiotic therapy in improvement of semen quality in infected infertile men.

The role of asymptomatic infections caused by Chlamydia trachomatis in male infertility and the efficacy of antibiotics in the treatment of this condition are not yet definitely determined. A total of 165 infertile males having abnormal semen parameters (study group) as well as 165 healthy fertile men (control group) were included. Semen samples were taken from all participants and after analysing for semen parameters, undergone real-time PCR, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as total antioxidant capacity (TAC) assays. Infected individuals of study group were treated with antibiotic. One month after the treatment completion, second semen samples were taken and undergone all the tests mentioned. The frequency of C.trachomatis was significantly higher in the infertile men compared with the fertile ones (4.2% vs 0.6%). Most of the semen parameters were improved and reached their normal range, the level of TAC elevated and ROS level as well as ROS/TAC ratio reduced after antibiotic treatment. Moreover, wives of three infected infertile men (42.9%) became pregnant 4months after the treatment completion. Our data suggest that asymptomatic infection caused by C.trachomatis is correlated with male infertility and antibiotic therapy can improve the semen quality and fairly treat the male infertility.

Improvement of semen parameters after antibiotic therapy in asymptomatic infertile men infected with Mycoplasma genitalium.

To elucidate the association between asymptomatic infections caused by Mycoplasma genitalium and male infertility, and evaluate the role of antibiotic therapy in treatment of this failure. A total of 165 infertile males having abnormal semen parameters (study group) and 165 healthy fertile men (control group) were included. Semen samples were taken from all participants and after analyzing for semen parameters, undergone real-time PCR, microbial culture, and reactive oxygen species (ROS), as well as total antioxidant capacity (TAC) assays. Infected individuals of study group were treated with antibiotic. One month after the treatment completion, second semen samples were taken and subjected to all the tests mentioned. The data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software, version 22.0. The frequency of M. genitalium was significantly higher in the infertile men compared with the fertile ones (9.7% vs. 1.2%; p=0.001). Mean cycle threshold (C t) value was lower in infected infertile than infected fertile men (p<0.001). All semen parameters, except volume, pH, and viscosity, were improved (p<0.05), most of which reached their normal range; leukocytes in seminal fluid decreased (p=0.02), the level of TAC was elevated (p=0.002), and ROS level as well as ROS/TAC ratio reduced after antibiotic treatment (p=0.03). Wives of seven infected infertile men (43.8%) became pregnant 4months after the treatment completion. Asymptomatic infection caused by M. genitalium is correlated with male infertility and antibiotic therapy can improve the semen quality and be used to treat male infertility.

The Effects of Endometrial Scratch on Pregnancy Rate in IUI Cycles

Objectives: Infertility is considered as a major issue all over the world. All the studies in this field focus on how to develop successful methods of turning infertile couples into fertile ones. Endometrial mechanical injury in order to augment the probability of implantation of embryo and pregnancy rate has been particularly noted in recent years. Considering the controversies in the use of methods and results of the previous studies, we decided to compare the pregnancy and abortion rates in the intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles with and without intervention, by employing a new method. Materials and Methods: This interventional study was performed on 150 infertile couples who referred to the infertility treatment clinic of Al-Zahra hospital, Tabriz (from April 2016 to March 2017) and were randomly divided into two groups. The IUI procedure was carried out in the first group after the endometrial scratch on the first to fifth days of the menstrual cycle, while the control group underwent only IUI without any intervention. The pregnancy and abortion rates were compared in study groups. Results: Pregnancy rate in the intervention group was significantly higher compared to the control group. No relationship was observed between the abortion rate and the intervention. There was no statistically significant difference between type and cause of infertility, maternal age and body mass index (BMI), duration of infertility, number of dominant follicles and pregnancy or abortion rates. Conclusions: The endometrial scratching performed on the first to fifth days of the menstrual cycle, preceding IUI procedure, leads to a significant increase in pregnancy rate. On the other hand, this method can be employed with lower costs in comparison to other fertilization methods.