Role of Vimentin 3 as Biomarker of Sperm Quality and Male Fertility

Backgroud: Infertility is defined as failure to achieve pregnancy after 12 months of regular unprotected sexual intercourse.Infertility imposes a considerable economic burden on patients and Healthcare systems. Vimentin is an essential intermediate filament of testicular germ cells for differentiation.Objective: The current study aimed to investigate whether vimentin 3(vim3) expression could be used as a reliable marker for the evaluation of sperm quality and male fertility.Patients and Methods: This study was conducted as a case-control study on 90 male participants and involved four groups attending the outpatient clinic, Andrology Unit, Dermatology and Andrology and STDs Department, Mansoura University Hospital for management of infertility. Assessments included detailed medical histories, physical and genital examinations, semen analysis, level of vimentin, acrosin activity index, Alpha-glucosidase activity, malondialdehyde ,superoxide dismutase activity and hormones levels.Results: Vimentin 3 expression was significantly decreased in Idiopathic asthenozoospermia, Idiopathic asthenoteratozoospermia group and Idiopathic oligoasthenoteratozoospermia group regarding whole sperm pellet and mature sperms in comparison to controls.Conclusion:The results of this study indicate that vimentin 3 could be involved in the control of sperm motility, and it could be considered as a potential marker to detect factors affecting sperm structure and function and predict sperm quality infertility problems.