F Bassiri - ۱. Department of Biology, Fars Science and Research Branch, Is-lamic Azad University, Fars, Iran . Department of Biology, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran
MH Nasr Esfahani - Department of Reproductive Biotechnology, Reproductive Bio-medicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Biotechnology, ACECR, Isfahan, Iran. Isfahan Fertility and Infertility Center, Esfahan, Iran
M Forozanfar - ۱. Department of Biology, Fars Science and Research Branch, Is-lamic Azad University, Fars, Iran . Department of Biology, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran
M Tavalaee - Department of Reproductive Biotechnology, Reproductive Bio-medicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Biotechnology, ACECR, Isfahan, Iran

Background: Male infertility is the sole or contributing fac-tor in 50% of infertile couple. The first conventional assess-ment for evaluation of male infertility is semen analysis (SA) which cannot provide complete information about the fertility potential. Many reasons are described as male infertility fac-tors, one of the major causes is DNA damage. DNA damage has been shown to be associated with several conditions such as failed fertilization, disruption of preimplantation development, increase of miscarriage, reduction of live birth rate and etc. The main causes of DNA damage are presence of sperm chromatin deficiency, excessive oxidative stress and apoptosis. Excessive production of free radicals has been linked with disturbance of sperm functions like loss of motility, low fertility potential, which is due to induction of lipid peroxidation and at the end sperm DNA damage. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sperm parameters, lipid peroxidation as ROS, DNA integrity and chromatin packaging in infertile man.Materials and Methods: 30 infertile male referred to the Isfa-han Fertility and Infertility Center, who had the inclusion criteria to enter the study and taking the consent form. In the current study. Semen samples was assessed for sperm parameters by CASA software. DNA fragmentation was assessed by TUNEL and SCSA used for Chromatin condensation. Maturation was assessed by CMA3 and aniline blue, respectively and Lipid per-oxidation was assessed using BODYPI.Results: During this study, we observed significant correla-tions between percentage of immature sperm with sperm concentration and percentage of sperm with abnormal mor-phology. Significant correlations were also observed between percentages of abnormal morphology with Intensity of sperm LO. In addition significant positive correlations was observed between percentages of SCSA with percentage of TUNEL positive sperm, percentage of sperm with LO and Intensity of sperm LO respectively. We found significant correlations between percentage of TUNEL positive sperm and percentage of sperm LO. Correlation between CMA3- positive spermato-zoa and intensity of lipid peroxidation were also significant. In addition, there was a close to significant negative correlations between sperm motility with percentage of sperm with DFI and intensity of sperm LO.Conclusion: Significant correlations between sperm functional tests in infertile men indicated antioxidant supplementation or other confirmed ways for reduction of oxidative stress can im-prove chance of pregnancy success rates.

Sperm Parameters, DNA Damage, Protamine Defi-ciency, Lipid Peroxidation