Recent studies have reported shorter sperm telomere length (STL) in men with idiopathic infertility. The aim of this study was to measure STL in semen samples from men to evaluate whether STL variation is associated with chromosomal abnormality, DNA fragmentation, traditional semen parameters, IVF outcome, or all four factors. A significant correlation between telomere length and diploidy was observed (P = 0.037). Additionally, STL was found to be positively associated with sperm count (P = 0.006); oligospermic samples had particularly short telomeres (0.9 ± 0.1 versus 1.4 ± 0.1; P = 0.0019). The results confirmed a link between sperm DNA fragmentation and aneuploidy, previously proposed (P = 0.009). A negative relationship was demonstrated between sperm concentration and aneuploidy and Sperm DNA framentation (P = 0.03, P < 0.0001, respectively). For a subset of 51 of the 73 sperm samples used for fertilization, IVF outcomes were known. A total of 17.6% of these samples had atypical STLs. None of these samples produced an ongoing pregnancy. In contrast, the pregnancy rate for samples that had STLs in the normal range was 35.7% (P = 0.044). In conclusion, STL has potential as a fast and inexpensive form of sperm quality assessment.

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Consanguineous marriage is defined as marriage between first or second-degree cousins, with high prevalence in many cultures and societies. Descendants from consanguineous unions have an increased risk for genetic diseases. Additionally, in consanguineous couples, chromosomal disjunction during embryogenesis could also be affected, increasing the risk of chromosomal errors. Nowadays, genomic testing allows to identify new genetic syndromes and variants related to copy-number variations (CNV), including whole chromosome, segmental and micro-segmental errors. This is the first study evaluating chromosomal ploidy status on blastocysts formed from consanguineous couples during IVF/ICSI treatments with Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidies (PGT-A), compared to non-consanguineous couples. Although consanguine couples were significantly younger, no differences were observed between groups for fertilisation rate, blastulation rate and euploidy rate, once adjusted by age. Nevertheless, the number of blastocysts biopsied on day 5 was lower for consanguine couples. Segmental errors, and aneuploidies of chromosomes 13 and 14 were the most prominent abnormalities in relation to consanguinity, together with errors in chromosome 16 and sex chromosomes when the female partner was younger than 35. Once euploid blastocysts were considered for subsequent frozen embryo transfer, pregnancy outcomes were similar in both groups. The current findings point toward the fact that in consanguine unions, not only the risk of having a child with genetic disorders is increased, but also the risk of specific chromosomal abnormalities seems to be increased. Premarital counselling and tailored reproductive treatments should be offered to these couples.

Introduction: Living with a serious stressor such as cancer is known to activate cognitive patterns relative to personal death and dying. This study was conducted to determine of death depression and its related factors in Iranian patients with cancer. Method: In this cross-sectional study that was conducted in 2015 (June-November); 500 cancer patients with random sampling method were included to study. Data were gathered with demographic and Death Depression Scale (DDS). Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses with using SPSS 22.0 were used to explore the potential factors influencing death depression of cancer patients. Results: Based on results, males age (48.59±16.15; 95CI: 46.62-50.57) were more than females (46.38±14.24; 95 CI: 68.42-71.66). The average of death depression score among patient with cancer was higher than the third quartile. A multivariate linear regression analysis showed that scores of incoming status (β coefficient = 0.24, p<0.001), no history of drug use (β coefficient = 0.13, p=0.002), and stage of cancer (β coefficient = 0.12, p=0.005) were independent predictors of death depression in cancer patients. Conclusion: Regards to high prevalence of depression in selected patients, importance of concentration on psychology interventions, especially in acute phase of disease and chemotherapy periods were highlighted.

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