Investigation of the effect of ciprofloxacin on in vitro sperm DNA fragmentation and sperm mitochondrial activity in normospermic cases

Infertiliy is defined as occurence of no pregnancy despite having unprotected sexual intercourse over a time period of 12 months or more. Male infertility affects the 25% of the young couples and it forms the half of the all infertility cases. Infertility is a very important issue affecting both mental state and the social life of couples. İnfertility develops by 50% of female factors and %40 of male factors. 10% of all the infertiliy cases are defined as unexplainable infertility. Abnormal or irregular chromatin packaging is the main determinant of sperm DNA damage mehanism. The developmental abnormalities of sperms are related to chromatin condensation time. The sperm DNA fragmentation index and the maturation defect raitos very important in sperm selection before the time of fertilization. The activity of mitochondria, the energy store which is needed for sperm to move and reach the oocyte, along with the sperm DNA fragmentation are carrying utmost importance at the current research topics. In this study, to determine the effects of an antibiotic known as ciprofloxacin on the sperm mitochondrial activity and sperm DNA fragmentation, the samples obtained by the 30 male patients that visited the Biruni University Hospital for routine control procedures are used. First, the semen analyzed sperm cells are divided into three equal portions to apply ciprofloxacin in different doses and to form the control group. Ciprofloxacin applied to the divided sperm groups at 7.4 and 14.8 microliters doses then incubated with the temperature of 36.5 celcius for two hours. After the application of doses, the semen analyzes are repeated and the differences are monitored. The DNA damage is determined by using the fluorescent microscope with acridine painting tecnique and by preparing as semen sample spreading preperation. It is detected that the group which incubated with high dose of ciproflaxacin had more DNA damage compared to the control group. The mitochondrial activity of the sperm samples that are incubated with the different doses of antibiotic are detected with MTT test it is determined that the semen sample exposed to the high dose of antibiotic lost its vitality more compared to the semen sample of low dose and the control group.