Ureaplasma urealyticum, Ureaplasma parvum, Mycoplasma hominis and Mycoplasma genitalium infections and semen quality of infertile men

Abstract

Background: Genital ureaplasmas (Ureaplasma urealyticum and Ureaplasma parvum) and mycoplasmas (Mycoplasma genitalium and Mycoplasma hominis) are potentially pathogenic species playing an etiologic role in both genital infections and male infertility. Reports are, however, controversial regarding the effects of these microorganisms infections in the sperm seminological variables. This study aimed at determining the frequency of genital ureplasmas and mycoplasmas in semen specimens collected from infertile men, and at comparing the seminological variables of semen from infected and non-infected men with these microorganisms.

Mechanisms of the harmful effects of bacterial semen infection on ejaculated human spermatozoa: potential inflammatory markers in semen

“…Mycoplasma genitalium ↓ sperm count [27] Enterococcus faecalis ↓ sperm count ↓ sperm morphology [28] [ 28,29] Staphylococcus aureus ↓ sperm count ↓ sperm motility…”

“…However, a loss of sperm motility concomitant with the integrity of the sperm mitochondrial membrane potential (∆ym) during experimental in vitro semen infection has also been reported in the presence of bacteria that do not produce SIF, such as known pathogenic C. trachomatis [15] and the conditionally pathogenic S. haemolyticus and B. ureolyticus [9,10]. Most probably, a complex balance between ↓ acrosome reaction (in vitro) [27] [23]…”

Frequency of sexually transmitted diseases and main methodological implications

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INTRODUZIONELe infezioni sessualmente trasmesse (MST) hanno un'incidenza di circa 340 milioni di nuovi casi ogni anno (48); se non trattate, molte di esse possono produrre infezioni con gravi complicanze, quali infertilità, aborti precoci e malattie neonatali di grado severo (18,24). I costi socio-economici di queste infezioni e delle loro complicanze sono elevati; lo screening per la prevenzione primaria del cancro della cervice e gli interventi per il trattamento e follow-up delle neoplasie cervicali intraepiteliali di grado lieve (CIN 1), moderato (CIN 2) e grave (CIN 3), il trattamento dell'infertilità, la cura della cecità e delle infezioni polmonari nei neonati, rappresentano una larga porzione dei costi sanitari complessivi.

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Interference of Human Spermatozoal Motility by Live Staphylococcus aureus

“…Infections of the male genitourinary tract represent a significant health care problem and account for almost 15% of cases of male infertility (Gdoura et al, 2007). Infections can affect different sites of the male reproductive tract, such as the testis, the epididymus and male accessory sex glands (Diemer et al, 2000;Golshani et al, 2006).…”

“…Among bacterial species that interact with spermatozoa are well known causative pathogens of genitourinary infections such as Escherichia coli, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Mycoplasma hominis and Chlamydia trachomatis (Kohn et al, 1998, Hosseinzadeh et al, 2001, Gdoura et al, 2007. E. coli probably represents the most frequently isolated microorganism in genitourinary infections (Weidner et al, 1991).…”