Apoptosis rate in human germinal cells: quality assay.

Abstract

Apoptosis is a process that eliminates superfluous or genetically compromised cells. Cell death is one of the most important aspects of organization of the developing, as alteration in timing, level, or pattern of cell death can lead to developmental anomalies. In our studies, we investigated apoptosis in follicular somatic and germ cells of patients with infertility problems. We found that cell death occur in human germinal vesicle, in some mature oocytes and in the oocytes that failed fertilization after ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection), this failure was strictly correlated with apoptosis. Still, after the Italian law number 40 of 2004, it was not available oocytes to research, and so we used cumulus cells because it is possible that directly through gap junctions or other molecular pathways, the activation of the apoptotic process from cumulus cells moves to oocyte, affecting the quality and the developmental and implantation potentiality of the embryos. Several studies have demonstrated the relationship between gonadotrophine serum levels and the apoptosis rate in germinal cells. Our interest was to investigate normogonadotropic women undergoing to induction of multiple follicular growth by r-FSH, which showed an insufficient ovarian response in terms of follicular growth (low responders). We studied the effects of r-LH supplementation in these low responders patients, valuating the apoptosis rate in cumulus cells: r-LH improved the chromatin integrity of these cells, which can apply as oocyte quality indicator. In man, lower FSH serum levels are associated with reduced Sperm Standard Parameters in term of concentration, motility and morphology and higher sperm DNA fragmentation. Hypogonadotrope hypogonadism is a clinical condition associated with male infertility, characterized by low serum levels of gonadotrophins. In our studies, we investigated the spermatozoa quality of 10 patients with hypogonadotrope hypogonadism, undergoing in vitro fertilization programs, before and after recombinant-FSH administration. We found an efficient procedure to highlight the correlation between spermatozoa morphology and DNA fragmentation, by TUNEL assay in situ. Results from r-FSH administered not encourage the possibility to can increase the success of in vitro fertilization techniques. Further study will be necessary to understand as improve integrity of DNA of somatic and germ human cells and increase in vitro fertilization outcome.