Male Infertility Linked to Sperm Protein Defect
I've talked about it before, about how important men are to the conception equation. This story pinpoints an issue that some males may face, and is exactly why if there are issues when a couple is trying to get pregnant, BOTH partners need to see a fertility doctor to get checked out, it's not always the women.
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Defect in Sperm Protein Linked to Male Infertility
Researchers have pinpointed a genetic mutation that may help explain why some men are less fertile than normal, a new study in the 20 July issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine reports. The gene encodes a protein called beta-defensin 126, which coats the surface of sperm and helps them penetrate cervical mucus in women. Men with a variant of this gene, called DEFB126, lack beta-defensin 126, making it much more difficult for sperm to swim through the mucus and join with an egg.
“The World Health Organization defines infertility as the inability to conceive after 12 months of attempts in the absence of birth control. Our data suggest the likelihood or probability that couples are unable to conceive in the 12-month window will increase significantly if men lack the normal gene for DEFB126,” said Gary Cherr, senior author of the study and professor at the University of California, Davis, during a 20 July teleconference with reporters
The genetic variation in DEFB126 may account for many unexplained cases of infertility. Moreover, screening for variants of DEFB126 in men could improve current testing, which still fails to find the cause of infertility in almost one-fifth of infertile couples.
Compared to sperm from monkeys and other mammals, human sperm are typically poor quality, slow-swimming, and contain a high rate of defective cells. “It's possible that because humans, unlike most mammals, breed in long-term monogamous relationships, sperm quality just does not matter very much,” Cherr said in a news release from the University of California, Davis.
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