Microbial flora in semen during in vitro fertilization

Abstract

Semen samples from 183 consecutive unselected men participating in an in vitro fertilization program were retrospectively studied to determine the bacterial and fungal contamination rate before and after antibiotic treatment. To ascertain the influence of semen preparation (wash and swim-up method) on the incidence of microorganisms, semen from 102 male patients was studied before and after swimup. Antimicrobial treatment by prescription of antibiotics decreased the incidence of pathogens by 16.3% (P less than 0.0001). Semen processing was more effective by ridding 57.4% of semen samples of microbial contaminants (P less than 0.0001). When infection of culture media was observed during routine microscopy, all infected oocytes were degenerated, without evidence of fertilization or pronuclei.

ANTIBIOFILM EFFECTS of Citrus limonum and Zingiber officinale Oils on BIOFILM FORMATION of Klebsiella ornithinolytica, Klebsiella oxytoca and Klebsiella terrigena SPECIES

“…When recent literature were examined within the content of the results obtained, sperm cells were indicated to include lots of commencial bacteria. Therefore, it became plussible seeing some of these opportunistic pathogens in the sperm cells infections especially in immunocompromised patients (Rehewy et al, 1979;Huyser et al, 1991). Furthermore, in this study all the isolated strains from the sperm were SBF and also in literature Klebsiella genus was known as one of the most important nosocomial infection factors among all gram negative bacteria after Escherichia coli.…”

Elimination of bacteria from human semen during sperm preparation using density gradient centrifugation with a novel tube insert

“…This is in agreement with results from studies that reported bacterial prevalence in neat semen samples to be between 54% and 57% (Cottell et al, 2000;Gdoura et al, 2008;Kiessling et al, 2008). The presence of bacteria in an in vitro embryo culture system can compromise the outcome of assisted reproductive procedures, by impacting directly on sperm quality by a reduction in motility (Nunez-Calonge et al, 1998), by the induction of apoptosis/necrosis (Villegas et al, 2005), or by causing degeneration of in vitro fertilized oocytes (Huyser et al, 1991). During embryo transfer the introduction of pathogens, such as Mycoplasma genitalium, into the uterus can lead to intra-uterine infections that may lead to infertility (Kastrop et al, 2007;Grzesko et al, 2009).…”

“…During assisted reproductive techniques (ART) including intra-uterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (Krissi et al, 2004), the natural immunological defence mechanisms present in the female reproductive tract are bypassed (Cottell et al, 1997). Consequently, bacteria may be introduced into the upper genital tract, or the embryo culture system, potentially leading to a compromised outcome of ART and, or infection of the female genital tract (Cottell et al, 2000;Cottell et al, 1997;Kastrop et al, 2007;Huyser et al, 1991). The frequency of micro-organism infections post-IUI is approximately 0.01% (Broder, Sims & Rothman, 2007) and infections of in vitro embryo culture systems, range between 0.35% and 0.68% (Kastrop et al, 2007;Cottell et al, 1996).…”

“…This addition of antibiotics to culture media, however, may result in antibiotic resistant bacterial strains (Kastrop et al, 2007), as well as a decreased embryo cleavage rate (Magli et al, 1996;Lemeire, Van Merris & Cortvrindt, 2007). Semen washing, with an extra swim-up step, has been reported to be more effective in decreasing the incidence of potential pathogens in sperm samples compared to antimicrobial therapy by prescription antibiotics (Huyser et al, 1991).…”

“…Depending on the processing method employed, 5% -43% of sperm samples will remain positive for bacteria post-processing (Cottell et al, 1997;Huyser et al, 1991;Knox et al, 2003). Procedural failure could be attributed to the contamination of the sperm pellets post-processing.…”