Research Question

Infections and/or inflammation processes of male genital tract are highly prevalent and often associated with risk of infertility. These conditions represent a possible cause of leukocytospermia, which is still under debate. Leukocytes are key-factors to reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the increase of ROS in semen fluid is associated with the worsening of semen parameters. At present, there are not appropriate andrological tests to identify asymptomatic inflammatory conditions when the amount of leukocytes is in the normal range.

Design

We studied the innate immunity profile of myeloperoxidase and lactoferrin (MPO/LAC) proteins expressed in the semen fluid of 39 men evaluated for couple infertility, in the absence of leukocytospermia.

Results

The presence of both MPO and LAC proteins was associated with a decrease of sperm concentration and of progressive/total motility, whereas the increase of MPO-/LAC + indicated a worse sperm morphology. It is worth to report the predictive potential of MPO+/LAC + pattern (above 4.36 %) as a biological marker to distinguish normozoospermic from pathological patients.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate MPO/LAC analysis as a potential diagnostic tool to identify asymptomatic conditions eventually related to male infertility, even when the number of leukocytes in semen fluid is below 1 million/mL.

中文翻译：

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精液中髓过氧化物酶和乳铁蛋白的表达：男性不育风险的新标志？

研究问题

男性生殖道的感染和/或炎症过程非常普遍，并且通常与不孕风险有关。这些情况代表了白细胞精子症的可能原因，这仍在争论中。白细胞是产生活性氧 (ROS) 的关键因素，精液中 ROS 的增加与精液参数的恶化有关。目前，当白细胞数量在正常范围内时，还没有合适的男科测试来识别无症状的炎症。

设计

我们研究了在没有白细胞精子症的情况下，39 名接受夫妻不育评估的男性精液中表达的髓过氧化物酶和乳铁蛋白 (MPO/LAC) 蛋白的先天免疫特征。

结果

MPO 和 LAC 蛋白的存在与精子浓度和进行性/总运动性的降低有关，而 MPO-/LAC + 的增加表明精子形态较差。值得报告 MPO+/LAC+ 模式（高于 4.36%）作为区分正常精子和病理患者的生物标志物的预测潜力。

结论

我们的研究结果表明，MPO/LAC 分析是一种潜在的诊断工具，可用于识别最终与男性不育相关的无症状疾病，即使精液中的白细胞数量低于 100 万/毫升。