Moustakli Efthalia, Zikopoulos Athanasios, Skentou Charikleia, Stavros Sofoklis, Sofikitis Nikolaos, Georgiou Ioannis, Zachariou Athanasios
Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Barrack Rd, Exeter EX 25 DW, UK.
J Clin Med. 2024 May 27;13(11):3147. doi: 10.3390/jcm13113147.
Infertility represents a significant global health challenge impacting millions of couples worldwide. Approximately half of all infertile couples exhibit compromised semen quality, indicative of diminished male fertility. While the diagnosis of male infertility traditionally relies on semen analysis, its limitations in providing a comprehensive assessment of male reproductive health have spurred efforts to identify novel biomarkers. Seminal plasma, a complex fluid containing proteins, lipids, and metabolites, has emerged as a rich source of such indicators. Reproduction depends heavily on seminal plasma, the primary transporter of chemicals from male reproductive glands. It provides a non-invasive sample for urogenital diagnostics and has demonstrated potential in the identification of biomarkers linked to illnesses of the male reproductive system. The abundance of seminal proteins has enabled a deeper understanding of their biological functions, origins, and differential expression in various conditions associated with male infertility, including azoospermia, asthenozoospermia, oligozoospermia, teratozoospermia, among others. The true prevalence of male infertility is understated due to the limitations of the current diagnostic techniques. This review critically evaluates the current landscape of seminal plasma biomarkers and their utility in assessing male infertility. Βy bridging the gap between research and clinical practice, the integrative assessment of seminal plasma biomarkers offers a multimodal approach to comprehensively evaluate male infertility.
不孕症是一项重大的全球健康挑战,影响着全球数百万对夫妇。在所有不孕夫妇中,约有一半精液质量受损,这表明男性生育能力下降。虽然传统上男性不育症的诊断依赖于精液分析,但其在全面评估男性生殖健康方面的局限性促使人们努力寻找新的生物标志物。精浆是一种含有蛋白质、脂质和代谢物的复杂液体,已成为此类指标的丰富来源。生殖在很大程度上依赖于精浆,它是来自男性生殖腺的化学物质的主要运输载体。它为泌尿生殖系统诊断提供了一种非侵入性样本,并已显示出在识别与男性生殖系统疾病相关的生物标志物方面的潜力。精浆蛋白的丰富性使人们能够更深入地了解它们的生物学功能、起源以及在与男性不育相关的各种情况下的差异表达,包括无精子症、弱精子症、少精子症、畸形精子症等。由于当前诊断技术的局限性,男性不育症的实际患病率被低估了。本综述批判性地评估了精浆生物标志物的现状及其在评估男性不育症中的效用。通过弥合研究与临床实践之间的差距,精浆生物标志物的综合评估提供了一种多模式方法来全面评估男性不育症。