Evaluation of Intracellular Anion Superoxide Level,Heat Shock Protein A2 and Protamine Positive Spermatozoa Percentages in Teratoasthenozoospermia

Background: teratoasthenozoospermia (ta) is a severe form of male infertility with no clear etiology.objective: to compare the level of intracellular anion superoxide (o2–),heat shock protein a2 (hspa2) and protamine deficiencies in ejaculated spermatozoa between teratoasthenozoospermic and normozoospermic men. materials and methods: in this case- control study,semen samples of 20 infertile men,with ta (with normal morphology lower than 4%_ and total motility lower than 40%) as the case group and 20 normozoospermic fertile men as the control group were evaluated for intracellular o2 – and hspa2 by flow cytometry and protamine deficiency by chromomycin a3 (cma3) test. results: the rate of cma3+ spermatozoa in the case group was higher than controls (p=0.001). the percentages of hspa2+ spermatozoa in the cases were significantly lower than controls (p=0.001). also,intracellular o2 – levels in the case group were significantly higher than controls (p=0.001) and had positive correlations with sperm apoptosis (r=0.79,p=0.01) and cma3 positive sperm (r=0.76,p=0.01),but negative correlations with normal morphology (r=-0.81,p=0.01) and motility (r=-0.81,p=0.01). there was no significant correlation between intracellular o2 – and hspa2 in the case group (r=0.041,p=0.79). conclusion: we suggest that the increase in intracellular o2 –,decrease in spermatozoa hspa2+,and high percentages of spermatozoa with immature chromatin might be considered as etiologies of infertility in ta patients. © 2017,research and clinical center for infertitlity. all rights reserved.