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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transl Med. Apr 12, 2016; 5(1): 26-36
Published online Apr 12, 2016. doi: 10.5528/wjtm.v5.i1.26
New insights in sperm biology: How benchside results in the search for molecular markers may help understand male infertility
Sara Marchiani, Lara Tamburrino, Monica Muratori, Elisabetta Baldi
Sara Marchiani, Lara Tamburrino, Monica Muratori, Elisabetta Baldi, Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy
Author contributions: Marchiani S wrote the manuscript; Tamburrino L participated in drafting the article; Muratori M and Baldi E critically revised the manuscript; Marchiani S and Baldi E provided final approval of the article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sara Marchiani, PhD, Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy. sara.marchiani@unifi.it
Telephone: +39-055-2758235
Received: December 4, 2015
Peer-review started: December 5, 2015
First decision: December 28, 2015
Revised: January 22, 2016
Accepted: February 16, 2016
Article in press: February 17, 2016
Published online: April 12, 2016
Abstract

The male factor is responsible for about 40% of couple infertility cases and such percentage is expected to increase in the future because of several likely factors including the presence of endocrine disruptors in the environment, changes in lifestyle habits and advanced couple aging. How such factors affect male fertility status, however, should be clarified. Most studies on male fertility status have focused on parameters analyzed using a spermiogram test, the primary diagnostic tool in the routine assessment of male infertility, which is, however, poorly predictive of both natural and medically assisted conception. For these reasons it is mandatory for the scientific community to identify new molecular markers to incorporate into the existing diagnostic tests of male fertility. Ideally, such markers would be detected in mature spermatozoa to avoid invasive procedures for the patient. This review summarizes the recent advancements in benchside approaches that appear most promising for the development of new diagnostic sperm fertility tests, or identification of therapeutic targets, and, illustrates their advantages and limits.

Keywords: Sperm markers, Male infertility, Genetic and epigenetic approaches, Proteomic approach, Ion channels

Core tip: This review focuses on genetic, epigenetic, proteomic, and post-translational protein modification and ion channel studies present thus far in the literature to identify possible sperm markers that could be helpful for new diagnostic tests or represent possible therapeutic targets for male infertility.