Skip Navigation



Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on April 7, 2005
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/dei013
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF ) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
20/8/2271    most recent
dei013v1
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ozanon, C.
Right arrow Articles by Sutovsky, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ozanon, C.
Right arrow Articles by Sutovsky, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received June 11, 2004
Revised March 1, 2005
Accepted March 8, 2005

Article

Clinical adaptation of the sperm ubuquitin tag immunoassay (SUTI): relationship of sperm ubiquitylation with sperm quality in gradient-purified semen samples from 93 men from a general infertility clinic population

Christophe Ozanon 1, Jacques Chouteau 2, and Peter Sutovsky 3*

1 Fertility-Assisted Medical Center, Laboratoire Unilab, Clinique Monplaisir, 8-10 avenue Frères Lumière, 69008 Lyon, France
2 Assistance Medical Center Grenoble-Belledonne, 83 avenue Gabriel Peri, 38400 St Martin d'Heres, France and
3 University of Missouri-Columbia, S141 ASRC, 920 East Campus Drive, Columbia, MO 65211-5300, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Peter Sutovsky, E-mail: SutovskyP{at}missouri.edu


  Abstract

BACKGROUND: The proteolytic chaperone peptide ubiquitin accumulates in defective human spermatozoa. Immunodetection of ubiquitin in human sperm samples correlates with semen quality and male fertility. METHODS: Semen samples from 93 men from couples seeking infertility treatment were separated on a PureSperm density gradient and screened by immunofluorescence microscopy with anti-ubiquitin antibodies. The percentage of spermatozoa with head ubiquitylation was recorded and compared with clinical semen evaluation and embryo development data after IVF or ICSI. Subjects were divided into the following four groups based on the initial clinical diagnosis of the couples; group 1, male factor; group 2, idiopathic infertility; group 3, female infertility with neither partner having children previously; and group 4, female infertility with male partners having children from previous relationships. RESULTS: The percentage of sperm with ubiquitylated heads remaining after PureSperm separation in the respective groups was 4.0% (male factor), 2.5% (idiopathic infertility), 0.7% (female infertility and presumed fertile male) and 0.9% (female infertility with established fertile male). Negative correlations between sperm ubiquitin and several parameters reflective of embryo development after assisted fertilization were found within the male factor group. CONCLUSIONS: Use of this simplified ubiquitin-based sperm quality assay is feasible in a clinical environment. Since the gradient separation does not completely deplete the defective spermatozoa, the modified light microscopic sperm ubiquitin tag immunoassay could add a new level of stringency to the selection of human spermatozoa for ICSI.

Keywords: andrology; infertility; male factor; sperm; ubiquitin.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Biol. Chem.Home page
P.-C. Pang, B. Tissot, E. Z. Drobnis, P. Sutovsky, H. R. Morris, G. F. Clark, and A. Dell
Expression of Bisecting Type and Lewisx/Lewisy Terminated N-Glycans on Human Sperm
J. Biol. Chem., December 14, 2007; 282(50): 36593 - 36602.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.