Recent studies have underlined the impact of obesity on sperm parameters, but very few data are available on the effect of weight loss on male fertility. This article reports the case series of three male patients who underwent rapid and major weight loss following bariatric surgery and the consequences of this surgery on semen parameters and fertility. A severe worsening of semen parameters was observed during the months after bariatric surgery, including extreme oligoasthenoteratozoospermia, but azoospermia was not observed. This effect may hypothetically be the result of two opposite mechanisms: (i) the suppression of the deleterious effects of obesity; and (ii) the negative impact of both nutritional deficiencies and the release of toxic substances. Information about potential reproductive consequences of bariatric surgery should be given to patients and sperm cryopreservation before surgery proposed. However, for one case, the alterations of spermatogenesis were reversible 2 years after the surgical procedure. Finally, intracytoplasmic sperm injection with fresh spermatozoa after male bariatric surgery can be successful, as demonstrated here, where clinical pregnancies were obtained for two out of the three couples.

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BackgroundThe metabolic pathway of folate is thought to influence DNA stability either by inducing single/double stranded breaks or by producing low levels of S-adenosyl-methionine leading to abnormal gene expression and chromosome segregation. Polymorphisms in the genes encoding enzymes in the folate metabolism pathway show distinct geographic and/or ethnic variations and in some cases have been linked to disease. Notably, the gene Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) in which the homozygous (TT) state of the polymorphism c.665C>T (p.A222V) is associated with reduced specific activity and increased thermolability of the enzyme causing mild hyperhomocysteinemia. Recently several studies have suggested that men carrying this polymorphism may be at increased risk to develop infertility.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe have tested this hypothesis in a case/control study of ethnic French individuals. We examined the incidence of polymorphisms in the genes MTHFR (R68Q, A222V and E429A), Methionine synthase reductase MTRR; (I22M and S175L) and Cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS; G307S). The case population consisted of DNA samples from men with unexplained azoospermia (n = 70) or oligozoospermia (n = 182) and the control population consisted of normospermic and fertile men (n = 114). We found no evidence of an association between the incidence of any of these variants and reduced sperm counts. In addition haplotype analysis did not reveal differences between the case and control populations.Conclusions/SignificanceWe could find no evidence for an association between reduced sperm counts and polymorphisms in enzymes involved in folate metabolism in the French population.

SUMMARYIntracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI), by selecting spermatozoa at high magnification improves the outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) mainly after several failures. However, only few monocentric randomized studies are available and they do not analyse results as a function of sperm characteristics. In 255 couples attempting their first assisted reproductive technology (ART) attempt for male infertility (motile sperm count <1910 6 after sperm selection, but at least 3910 6 spermatozoa per ejaculate to allow a detailed analysis of sperm characteristics), a prospective randomized trial was performed to compare the clinical outcomes of IMSI and ICSI and to evaluate the influence of sperm characteristics on these outcomes. IMSI did not provide any significant improvement in the clinical outcomes compared with ICSI neither for implantation (24% vs. 23%), nor clinical pregnancy (31% vs. 33%) nor live birth rates (27% vs. 30%). Moreover, the results of IMSI were similar to the ICSI ones whatever the degree of sperm DNA fragmentation, nuclear immaturity and sperm morphology. These results show that IMSI instead of ICSI has no advantage in the first ART attempts. However, this does not rule out IMSI completely and more randomized trials must be performed especially regarding patients carrying severe teratozoospermia, or high sperm DNA fragmentation levels or having previous ICSI failures.

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