INCREASING FERTILITY THREEFOLD WITH DHEA ?

Increasing Fertility Threefold With DHEA?
Israel - A team of researcher from a Tel Aviv University has studied the effect of DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) on women trying to become pregnant.

DHEA is known by consumers as the hormone of youth. Some say it slows the aging of the skin. However, its effectiveness remains controversial. Following rumors, Professor Adrian Shulman and his team focused on its properties in terms of fertility. As part of a program of in vitro fertilization, they found that women who took DHEA in addition to standard treatment had 23% chance of getting pregnant while those who did not follow the usual treatment had only 4% opportunities. In addition, women in the first group lived a pregnancy and childbirth more serene.

These results are nonetheless viewed with caution. In effect , the experiment was performed on only 20 women. It would require a larger study to lead to conclusive results. In addition, researchers have not yet discovered what was the mechanism for DHEA to increase fertility.

Story Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University.
Link: http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12457

DAILY SEX "HELPS IMPROVE SPERM QUALITY"

Daily Sex "Helps Improve Sperm Quality"

Australian study - Having sex daily increase sperm quality and thus assist men who have fertility problems.

The study was conducted on 118 Australians whose semen showed alterations, the researchers found that daily ejaculation for a week increased significantly reduce the number of DNA damage sperm of patients.

Dr David Greening and colleagues at the private clinic Sydney IVF (Australia), specializes in fertility problems, participants were asked to have sex every day for a week. After seven days, doctors have observed in 81% of subjects a decrease of 12% of the amount of damaged sperm. Sperm quality can also be improved if men do not smoke, do not abuse alcohol, do exercise and ingest more antioxidants.

Although the sperm count has dropped to 180 million per ml to 70 million per ml, men were still in the "range of fertility."

Since he led the study, Dr Greening said now recommend to all couples seeking advice to improve their fertility to begin to love more. One suggestion that seems to contradict the older men but delight the youngest, said the doctor.

Sex frequent help to improve sperm quality by preventing it from staying too long in the body. The sperm DNA was indeed more likely to be damaged when staying long in the body. Also heat can also make sperm less mobile.

Some experts welcomed the study but added that it does not prove that sex daily allows men with fertility problems to have a better chance of producing babies. Dr Greening and colleagues are still analyzing the results of the study to determine how many companions of participants became pregnant.

If confirmed, the discovery could have implications for in vitro fertilization (IVF) as was previously recommended for couples to abstain for two days just to increase sperm count.

"Studying the DNA of sperm is only part of the puzzle" said his side Bill Ledger, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Sheffield, Great Britain, who has not participated in the study.

"This may improve pregnancy rates, but we still need to study further" Mr. Ledger also believes that apply to couples with fertility problems to have greater love could harm their relationship.

"This could add to the anxiety and do more harm than good." Couples should not feel obliged to change their sexual life to have a baby, he said.
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This work was presented Tuesday, June 30, 2009 in Amsterdam at the Congress of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. (Website: http://www.eshre.com)
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Sources: BBC News, AP

THE INFERTILE OBESE WOMAN EXPLAINED ?

The Infertile Obese Women Explained ?
Australia - Dr Robk University of Adelaide have found the reason for infertility in obese women.

By studying cases of ninety-six women seeking assistance for reproduction in a private clinic between February 2006 and April 2007, Dr. Robk could target an alteration of the ovaries in obese patients, tainting their eggs are unable to into embryos.

Obese women, even young and with regular menstrual cycles, take longer to conceive. Dr. Robk wanted to understand whether environmental degradation of the egg can contribute. His study found that "obese women have a high fat and inflammation in the fluid surrounding the egg, which may affect the development of the latter".

These are fats that alter the egg and are therefore harmful to its development. Inflammation would also jeopardize the survival of the embryo formed. These findings were confirmed by measurements of levels of hormones and metabolites content in the follicular fluid of ovarian cancer patients (accumulation of cells in the ovaries).

Dr. Robk concluded: "Obesity is known to change the fat into the bloodstream and cause inflammation that affects the overall health of a person". Our research shows that obesity is also changing the environment of the ovary which nourishes the developing ova.

STIMULATION OF OVULATION DO NOT INCREASE CANCER RISK

Stimulators Of Ovulation Do Not Increase Cancer Risk
Denmark - ovulation induction, used in the treatment of female infertility, would not affect cancer risk, according to a study conducted by Professor Jensen.

The study was conducted among 50,000 women with infertility problems to show the link between this type of treatment and cancer risk. By comparing the number of ovarian cancer in women who used to induce ovulation than women who had never taken the team of Prof. Jensen has found no additional risk to the first group women.

Infertility is often caused by a hormonal imbalance that disturbs the production of eggs on a regular basis. The ovulation-inducing drugs stimulate the ovaries to increase chances of ovulation. But this weakens the ovarian stimulation that cannot heal properly after egg production.

The study, however, must be refined with advancing age in women followed since age 60 is the age where occur most of the major cancers and that many women have not followed this age.

The inductions of ovulation are very effective and would be responsible for the increase in multiple pregnancies.

INFERTILITY DUE TO CHANGES IN REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS ?

Infertility Due To Changes In Reproductive Organs?
Israel - Dr Hasson of the University of Tel Aviv issued a new theory about the declining fertility of human couples. The evolution of reproductive organs would make sperm more aggressive face of ova more protectionist.

To Dr. Hasson, thousands of years of evolution have altered the complementarity of the reproductive organs of men and women. "The rate of human infertility is much higher than expected. At present, developments should have improved our success rate. Something else happens," says he.

For thousands of years, women's bodies has forced the sperm to be more competitive and therefore more aggressive. But this aggressiveness alters the blocking process that occurs when the egg is fertilized by one sperm.

The new force of sperm that the blocking process has no time to implement and a second sperm can enter the egg. The egg is then destroyed by the polyspermy and fertilization stopped.

"To avoid the fatal consequences of polyspermy, female reproductive tract has evolved to become a formidable barrier to sperm". This fuels an arms race "between the sexes that causes the decline of fertility," describes Dr. Hasson.

An estimated 10% of couples experiencing fertility problems. The lifestyle and environmental causes are often cited to justify this reduction.

Gpx5 - AN ANTIOXIDANT ENZYME PROTECTS SPERM

Gpx5 - An antioxidant enzyme protects sperm
Gpx5 (glutathione peroxidase 5), an antioxidant protein that protects the immature sperm cells once they have left the testis has been identified by the unit GReD (INSERM CNRS University of Clermont-Ferrand). The discovery of Joel Drevet and his team established the link between oxidative stress and post-testicular degradation of the DNA of male gametes. These results, which portend a significant clinical impact especially for medically assisted procreation (PMA), published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI).

Sperm are formed in the testes and, on leaving the latter to mature within the epididymis where they acquire their fertilizing capacity. During these stages of maturation, the fragile sperm are subject to oxidative stress, provoking damage of membrane lipids to DNA. To prevent such oxidative damage during ripening and storage between two ejaculations, gametes are partially protected by - Gpx5 - an antioxidant enzyme secreted by the epididymal epithelium.

The study shows that male mice lacking this protein were morphologically normal sperm and fully capable of fertilizing an egg. But when we cross the wild females with these males deficient Gpx5, abnormally high rates of developmental defects, an increased number of abortions and perinatal mortality were recorded. What causes it? Further analysis of sperm from animals without Gpx5 show oxidative damage to sperm DNA: DNA is unpacked and tends to fragment.

John Aitken of the University of Newcastle (Australia) said in a comment for the article that these results have significant clinical impact in the context of the fertility of human aging and technology to PMA. If these data are confirmed in humans, several applications could be envisaged for the diagnosis and correction of post-testicular infertility. In the field of medically assisted procreation, these results would protect the seeds during thawing before artificial insemination and, more generally, to better take into account the state of fragmentation of sperm DNA technology in the LDCs.

Genetics Unit, reproduction and development, UMR CNRS 6247 - Unit Inserm931, University of Clermont-Ferrand 1 and 2.

Bibliography: Epididymis Seleno-independent glutathione peroxidase 5 maintains sperm DNA integrity in mice.
E. Chabory, C. Damon, A. Lenoir, G. Kauselmann, H. Kern, B. Zevnik, C. Garrel, F. Saez, R. Cadet, J. Henry Berger, M. Schoor, U. Gottwald, U. Habenicht, J. R. Drevet and P. Vernet. GPX5 protects the family jewels. J. Aitken Published in Journal of Clinical Investigation, July 2009

CLONE A PROTEIN TO FIGHT AGAINST INFERTILITY ?

Clone a protein to fight against infertility ?

Canada - New treatments for infertility may soon become reality thanks to the discovery of Quebec researchers: they are the first to have cloned a protein important for sperm maturation. A discovery that could affect both the treatment of infertility and the development of new methods of male contraception.

The protein is called protein-binding sperm (Binder of Sperm or BSP).

"We had already isolated and characterized BSP many species, including bull and the boar," said Professor Puttaswamy Manjunath, primary author of the research. We know from these studies that if this protein is missing or defective in these species, fertility is compromised. We believe that this protein is equally important in humans.

"For several years we have not searched the right place. Furthermore, since the BSP are produced in minute quantities, it was impossible to isolate and characterize". The researcher and his team are left to zero by cloning, they were finally able to produce and purify the protein.

"After many trials, we could produce the human protein-binding functional sperm. Our next steps are to confirm its biological role in human fertility" the scientist concludes.

SOURCE: University of Montreal