assessment of sperm morphology, chromatin integrity and catsper genes expression in hypothyroid mice

assessment of sperm morphology, chromatin integrity and catsper genes expression in hypothyroid mice

there is an obvious relationship between fertilizing capacity of sperm and with the normal morphology, quality chromatin and motility of sperm. it is well known that thyroid hormones are the major regulators of testicular function. a correlation was found between the hypothyroidism and sperm damages. we studied the effects of hypothyroidism on sperm morphology, chromatin quality and motility.

in this study, 20 male mice were divided into the control and the hypothyroid group that received 0.05% 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil (ptu) for 35 days. sperm morphology with papanicolaou staining and sperm chromatin quality with both aniline blue (ab) and toluidine blue (tb) staining were assessed. as well as, immunohistochemistry and real-time pcr were done to evaluate the cation sperm channel (catsper) genes changes. a significant increase in the sperm chromatin condensation was found in the hypothyroid mice comparison to the control mice (p<0.05).

furthermore a significant decrease was observed in the morphology of normal sperm in hypothyroid mice compared to the controls (p<0.05). hypothyroidism could down-regulate the expression of catsper genes. immunohistochemical data confirmed the real time-pcr results. our study suggested that hypothyroidism could adversely affect sperm morphology, as well as sperm chromatin condensation and catsper gene expression in the mice and these abnormalities may be related to the excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ros) in hypothyroid state.