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Re: Contribution of Male Age to Outcomes in Assisted Reproductive Technologies
MALE INFERTILITY
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result that achieved statistical significance, although the odds ratio of 0.973 was so close to 1 that the relationship must be considered weak at best. I applaud the intent of these investigators in using more than 1 clinical variable to improve the ability of sperm chromatin dispersion to predict pregnancy outcomes, although it seems this quest is still a work in progress. Craig Niederberger, M.D.
Re: Contribution of Male Age to Outcomes in Assisted Reproductive Technologies B. W. Whitcomb, R. Turzanski-Fortner, K. S. Richter, S. Kipersztok, R. J. Stillman, M. J. Levy and E. D. Levens Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst, Massachusetts Fertil Steril 2011; 95: 147–151.
Objective: To evaluate the relationship between male age and pregnancy outcome in donor oocyte assisted reproductive technology cycles. Design: Retrospective cohort. Setting: Private IVF center. Patient(s): A total of 1,392 donor cycles from 1,083 female recipients and their male partners. Intervention(s): Oocyte donor cycles. Main Outcome Measure(s): Live birth. Result(s): Increasing male age was associated with semen parameters including volume and motility; however, male age was not observed to have a statistically significant association with likelihood of live birth in donor cycles after adjustment for female recipient age. Conclusion(s): When treatment cycle number and female recipient age were taken into account, male age had no significant association with pregnancy outcomes in assisted reproductive technology donor cycles in this study population. Editorial Comment: These authors investigated the relationship between male age and in vitro fertilization with and without intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcomes. When female age was taken into account, male age did not significantly correlate to live birth rates. As the authors put it in the discussion section, “If a male age association exists, it seems to be a weak one.” To those who are seeking to find a reason why increasing male age should degrade IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcomes, the moral is that first you must demonstrate that such an association actually exists. Craig Niederberger, M.D.
Apoptotic Gene Expression in Potentially Fertile and Subfertile Men M. Cavalcanti, C. Steilmann, K. Failing, M. Bergmann, S. Kliesch, W. Weidner and K. Steger Department of Urology, Pediatric Urology and Andrology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany Mol Hum Reprod 2011; Epub ahead of print.
Human sperm contain similar amounts of protamine-1 (P1) and protamine-2 (P2). Although aberrant protamine ratios have been observed in subfertile men, functional evidence is provided by protamine knockout mice exhibiting male infertility. As sperm DNA integrity is known to be linked with DNA fragmentation and apoptosis, we investigated, if the DNA fragmentation factor 40 (DFF40) ratio or caspase (Casp4, Casp6) and tumour necrosis factor superfamily member 10 (TNFSF10) ratio together with the P1/P2 ratio represents a reliable biomarker to discriminate between fertile and subfertile men. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR was used for amplification of P1, P2 and DFF40 in 49 testicular biopsies. Casp4, Casp6 and TNFSF10 have been selected from a PCR apoptosis array and were further investigated in another group of testicular biopsies (22 subfertile men versus 11 potentially fertile men). Using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient analysis, we did not find a correlation between DFF40 and P1, P2, P1/P2, score, fertilization rate and age. In addition, logistic regression analysis demonstrated no statistically significant effect of the analyzed variables on pregnancy. A
1017
result that achieved statistical significance, although the odds ratio of 0.973 was so close to 1 that the relationship must be considered weak at best. I applaud the intent of these investigators in using more than 1 clinical variable to improve the ability of sperm chromatin dispersion to predict pregnancy outcomes, although it seems this quest is still a work in progress. Craig Niederberger, M.D.
Re: Contribution of Male Age to Outcomes in Assisted Reproductive Technologies B. W. Whitcomb, R. Turzanski-Fortner, K. S. Richter, S. Kipersztok, R. J. Stillman, M. J. Levy and E. D. Levens Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst, Massachusetts Fertil Steril 2011; 95: 147–151.
Objective: To evaluate the relationship between male age and pregnancy outcome in donor oocyte assisted reproductive technology cycles. Design: Retrospective cohort. Setting: Private IVF center. Patient(s): A total of 1,392 donor cycles from 1,083 female recipients and their male partners. Intervention(s): Oocyte donor cycles. Main Outcome Measure(s): Live birth. Result(s): Increasing male age was associated with semen parameters including volume and motility; however, male age was not observed to have a statistically significant association with likelihood of live birth in donor cycles after adjustment for female recipient age. Conclusion(s): When treatment cycle number and female recipient age were taken into account, male age had no significant association with pregnancy outcomes in assisted reproductive technology donor cycles in this study population. Editorial Comment: These authors investigated the relationship between male age and in vitro fertilization with and without intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcomes. When female age was taken into account, male age did not significantly correlate to live birth rates. As the authors put it in the discussion section, “If a male age association exists, it seems to be a weak one.” To those who are seeking to find a reason why increasing male age should degrade IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcomes, the moral is that first you must demonstrate that such an association actually exists. Craig Niederberger, M.D.
Apoptotic Gene Expression in Potentially Fertile and Subfertile Men M. Cavalcanti, C. Steilmann, K. Failing, M. Bergmann, S. Kliesch, W. Weidner and K. Steger Department of Urology, Pediatric Urology and Andrology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany Mol Hum Reprod 2011; Epub ahead of print.
Human sperm contain similar amounts of protamine-1 (P1) and protamine-2 (P2). Although aberrant protamine ratios have been observed in subfertile men, functional evidence is provided by protamine knockout mice exhibiting male infertility. As sperm DNA integrity is known to be linked with DNA fragmentation and apoptosis, we investigated, if the DNA fragmentation factor 40 (DFF40) ratio or caspase (Casp4, Casp6) and tumour necrosis factor superfamily member 10 (TNFSF10) ratio together with the P1/P2 ratio represents a reliable biomarker to discriminate between fertile and subfertile men. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR was used for amplification of P1, P2 and DFF40 in 49 testicular biopsies. Casp4, Casp6 and TNFSF10 have been selected from a PCR apoptosis array and were further investigated in another group of testicular biopsies (22 subfertile men versus 11 potentially fertile men). Using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient analysis, we did not find a correlation between DFF40 and P1, P2, P1/P2, score, fertilization rate and age. In addition, logistic regression analysis demonstrated no statistically significant effect of the analyzed variables on pregnancy. A