Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Enzyme Gene Expression of Infertile Men Before and After Sperm Activation in vitro

Background: Infertility is characterized by the inability to achieve pregnancy after engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse for at least one year. Objective: This study aims to examine the expression levels of the GSK3A gene in infertile men, both before and after in vitro sperm activation. Methodology: Semen samples from 100 men: 50 with (oligozoospermia and oligoasthenozoospermia) as patients or infertile men and 50 healthy controls were collected at Al-Najaf Fertility Center. In vitro sperm activation was performed using FertiCult™ flushing medium with the swim-up technique, and GSK3A gene expression was measured by RT-qPCR. Results: The data of this study demonstrated significant improvement in progressive sperm motility (P < 0.006) and morphologically normal sperm (P < 0.001) in both the control and infertile men following in vitro activation compared to pre-activation values. The expression levels of GSK3A gene after activation showed a significant difference (P<0.01, P<0.035) in oligozoospermia and oligoasthenozoospermia subgroups compared to before activation, while the gene expression of control group after activation showed non- significant difference (P>0.05) compared to before activation. Conclusion: The study showed that after swim-up activation, sperm quality improved with higher progressive motility and normal morphology, while GSK3A expression improved significantly only the oligoasthenozoospermia subgroup.