Introduction: Today, infertility is one of the most common global health problems. Semen parameters are used to investigate male fertility. According to the World Health Organization, sperm concentration, morphology, motility, and agglutination are the primary parameters that are used to predict the male fertility. Genital tract infection and inflammation is one of the factors that can affect men’s fertility. A wide range of bacteria are reported to be involved in various types of infertility in men. Bacteria responsible for semen contaminations generally originate from the urinary tract of patients or can be transmitted by the partner via sexual intercourse. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of
Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) inoculation on ejaculated human spermatozoa and comparing sperm parameters (motility, morphology, and viability) with and without adding bacteria to the sperm samples.Methods: The study was carried out on swim-up-separated spermatozoa from 33 normozoospermic samples of men referred to the infertility treatment center, Nikan hospital, Tehran. The swim up suspension of each sample was divided in to two parts; the first part (experimental group) was co-incubated in HTF-HSA solution with 5×106 CFU/ml of
Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923, and the second part (control group) was incubated at the same condition but without Staphylococcus aureus. After 90 minutes of cell incubation at 37 ° C, sperm parameters were assessed according to WHO criteria. Then, Paired t-test was used to find the significant differences between the experimental group and control group. Results: The results of the present study indicate that
Staphylococcus aureus infection cause a significant decline of sperm parameters, and significant differences were observed in morphology, motility and viability of sperm between experimental and control group (P <0.05).Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the contact of bacteria with ejaculated spermatozoa can damage the sperm cells and reduce its quality, with potential consequences for male fertility.