Journal of Women's Health Care
Open Access
ISSN: 2167-0420
ISSN: 2167-0420
Salem Shalaweh
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Women’s Health Care
Reproductive problems such as poor quality or quantity of sperm, sexual dysfunction and hormone disorders are of great concern and cause considerable distress, anxiety and a decrease in sexual confidence especially in males. Studies have shown that the male factor contributes approximately 30-50% to fertility-related cases and that almost 50% of male infertility cases are classified as idiopathic. Human spermatozoa from a total of 25 semen samples were washed with Human Tubular Fluid medium supplemented with Bovine Serum Albumin (HTF-BSA) and incubated for two hours followed by incubation with different concentrations of nanoparticles and control for 1.5 hours at 37 ºC. Samples were analyzed for calcium homeostasis, capacitation, sperm motility, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) modulation, DNA-fragmentation as well as acrosome reaction. For Ca2+ flux studies, a high-throughput fluorescence Ca2+ flux assay was used. However, the technology targets 3 to 4 surface markers on sperm with nano magnetic particles. These targets are apoptotic sperm, acrosome reacted sperm, DNA fragmentation and membrane damaged sperm. After incubation at room temp the mixture of particles and sperm are placed against a laboratory magnet for removal of the targeted deficient sperm, the supernatant contains the viable sperm. In so doing, we enrich for viable non DNA damaged sperm for use in IVF.
E-mail: 3228032@myuwc.ac.za