The Correlation between NRF2Antioxidant Gene Expression and Sperm Quality in Asthenoteratozoospermia Men

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the expression of the antioxidant gene of the nuclear factor Erythroid 2 related to factor 2 (Nrf2) and sperm quality in asthenoteratozoospermia men.

The study was conducted at the University Jihad Infertility Treatment Center in Qom, Iran. In this study, 50 infertile with asthenoteratozoospermia and 50 fertile individuals were enrolled as the control group. Sperm parameters were evaluated according to WHO (2010). Sperm DNA fragmentation, Nrf2 gene expression, and antioxidant enzyme levels were assessed with TUNEL, RT-PCR, and ELISA kits, respectively. The significance level was considered to be p < 0.05.

The results showed that the expression level of the NRF2 gene in patients with asthenoteratozoospermia was lower than the control group (P <0.05). The quality of sperm parameters and the level of antioxidant enzymes were lower than the control group (P <0.05). A Significant association was observed between gene expression of Nrf2 gene, sperm parameters and levels of antioxidant enzymes (p < 0.05).

Our findings show that mRNA NRF2 expression is significantly associated with the quality of sperm parameters in asthenoteratozoospermia men. This suggests that NRF2 is important for spermatogenesis and may serve as a useful indicator in the diagnosis of male infertility.