Male infertility is a very common condition, with reports suggesting that one in 15 men of reproductive age are affected1. The diagnosis of male-factor infertility is difficult and involves discounting female infertility through hormone measurements, pelvic examination and invasive laparoscopy. A semen profile analysis can suggest male infertility, if sperm counts are <15-20 million/ml, or <50% of sperm possess forward progressive motility (and < 25% rapidly progressive sperm) or <4% good morphology sperm. However, for many couples (20-30%), infertility remains largely unexplained.
In addition, infertile men appear to have more than their share of problems. Not only are they dying younger, but on average demonstrate three times the average rates of cancer compared to the general population2. As such, it appears that spermatozoa may give a “prophetic” insight into the overall health of men.
As such, we have used quantitative proteomics analysis to compare spermatozoa taken from healthy, fertile individuals and compared the proteome to that of an infertile male. Several proteins were found to be altered, including, the sperm specific protein, Outer Dense Fibre 1, which was virtually absent from the gametes of the infertile male. A second cohort of men, were missing the major chromatin compaction protein, MENT , together with Histone H2A Bbd and HSP4AL. Given these proteins are also expressed in somatic cells and regulate chromatin compaction, this represent the first biochemical insight as to how male infertility, may predict the future of a man’s health.