�Conference delegates in Spain yesterday heard about new research from Ireland that found diabetes in workforce had a direct essence on male person fertility
because of higher damage to sperm DNA.
The study was the work of Dr Con Mallidis from Queen's University, Belfast, and colleagues, and was presented at the twenty-fourth annual conference of the
European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology that finished yesterday, 9th July, in Barcelona. The fight statement did not mention
whether the study is to be published in a journal.
"We have shown for the first time that diabetes adversely influences male natality at a molecular grade," Mallidis told conference delegates.
Diabetes causes DNA damage in sperm, Mallidis said, adding that worldwide concern about male fertility coincides with rising numbers game of diabetics
diagnosed at a young age.
Scientists already knew that lower quality of sperm cell DNA is closely joined to lour embryo quality and implantation rates, as well as higher rates of
abortion and serious childhood diseases, and cancer in particular. Various suggestions have been made as to what might reason DNA damage in
sperm cell, but until now, the underpinning molecular biology has been somewhat of a mystery.
Mallidis and colleagues studied semen samples from hands with diabetes who were undergoing insulin treatment and found that apart from being of
slightly frown volume, the samples looked normal when routinely examined under a microscope.
"But when we looked for DNA damage, we saw a very different picture," said Mallidis, explaining that this was non normally piece of a routine
analysis.
The sperm RNA was significantly different, and many of the alterations they sawing machine appeared to be RNA transcripts victimized in repairing DNA.
Comparison with a database of men of proven fertility confirmed our findings," said Mallidis.
"Diabetics have a significant decrease in their power to quicken sperm DNA, and once this is damaged it cannot be restored," he added.
RNA transcription is the first whole step of gene expression, where DNA computer code is translated into assorted forms of action at the molecular level, such as
making proteins to carry out cell functions, including emergence, division and death.
Errors in transcription ar highly suggestive of errors in the DNA itself, and Mallidis said he and his team saw a "fourteen-fold decrease in the
expression of a protein called ornithine decarboxylase, which is responsible for the production of spermine and spermidine, compounds creditworthy
for cell growth that help steady the bodily structure of DNA".
They also found that a factor called spermatogenesis 20, of obscure function merely known to be unique to the testis, was greatly increased.
Mallidis and colleagues concluded that:
"Taken together, these factors argue clearly that having diabetes has a direct influence on the health of semen."
The scientists' next step is to find kayoed what happens in diabetic men to cause price to their sperm DNA. Mallidis aforesaid they had a clue in that they
found:
"A class of compounds known as advance glycation goal products (AGEs) in the male reproductive tract. These are formed as the result of glycation
(the addition of sugar)."
AGEs cumulate during normal ageing, added Mallidis, explaining that:
"They ar dependent on life expressive style -- diet, smoking etc -- and in many diabetic complications are centrally implicated in DNA scathe. We believe that
they play a similar role in the male procreative system."
Mallidis and his team will be continuing the research to try and establish how AGEs conduce to DNA damage. They believe they may have
discovered a new purpose for AGEs; one that extends their role beyond diabetes and its consequences.
Considering the public health implications of their findings, Mallidis said:
"We must now try on to develop strategies to protect spermatozoan, and to diminish the accumulation of AGEs."
These could include steps like changes in diet, which disrupt the formation of AGEs, or pickings supplements to increasing the body's shelter
against AGEs.
And another teaser is spermatogenesis 20. What does it do incisively, and wherefore, and when, and how? And why do diabetics have it in much larger
amounts?
"We need to find answers to all these questions," said Mallidis.
The study was Abstract No. O-258, and was scheduled for Wednesday at 14.00 hrs local time.
Click here for European Society of Human Reproduction and
Embryology.Source: ESHRE, .
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
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