Demonstration of sperm izumo-1 protein in normospermic persons which diagnosed with infertility

Infertility is one of the most important and very common problems of our age. The inability of couples to have a child after one year of unprotected intercourse is considered infertility. It is known that approximately 50% of infertility cases are caused by the male factor. Infertility is recognized as a public health problem by the World Health Organization (WHO) and one out of every six people is thought to be infertile. Many reasons such as genetic anomalies, systemic diseases, previous infections, varicocele, cancer and chemotherapy can cause infertility in men. Reasons such as unhealthy diet, alcohol and cigarette use, drug use and exposure to environmental toxins are also important risk factors that play a role in the development of infertility in people. However in some patient groups, although all these parameters are normal, people are infertile. These patient groups are also called idiopathic infertile. Izumo1 is one of the important sperm proteins for sperm-egg fusion in mammals. In experimental studies, although male izumo1-/- individuals produce normal cell numbers, it has been shown that these individuals are completely infertile with normal motility and morphology. We aimed to determine if there were any changes. For this purpose, for our thesis study, we considered infertile individuals as patients and divided 100 normospermic individuals into 4 equal groups. 1- Smoker patient (30 people - infertile) 2- Non-smoker (30 people - infertile) 3-Smoker control (20 people - fertile) 4-Non-smoker control (20 people - fertile) Sperm samples were collected from normospermic individuals in these groups and evaluated by immunofluorescence staining. As a result of this evaluation, it was seen that sperm isumo-1 levels were significantly lower in both the smokers in the patient group and the smokers in the control group compared to the non-smoker and control groups. With this study, in addition to the other studies showing that smoking causes deterioration of sperm parameters, it is necessary for sperm-oocyte fusion. We have shown that by reducing sperm isumo-1 protein levels, it is a risk factor for the occurrence of infertility. Keywords: Idiopathic, Infertility, Izumo-1, Smoking, Normospermia