Validation of fertility biomarkers in seminal proteins of obese men

• Grant number: 16/11553-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2017
• End date: February 28, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Surgery
• Principal Investigator: Renato Fraietta
• Grantee: Renato Fraietta
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Mariana Pereira Antoniassi ; Renata Cristina de Carvalho ; Ricardo Pimenta Bertolla

Abstract

The obesity prevalence worldwide has increased recently .In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults (aged 18 years or older) presented an overweight, of which 600 million were considered obese. The obesity is characterized as an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat tissue, which can be harmful to human health. The BMI (Body Mass Index) is the index that classifies the body weight condition, and it is obtained by the patient's weight (kilograms) divided by the square of your height (meters); where values greater than or equal to 25 kg/m2, the patient is classified as overweighted, and values greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2 indicates obesity. Excess fat, besides physiologically affect the organism, can affect spermatogenesis and consequently semen quality, the hormone levels, can generate inflammation and can lead to erectile dysfunction. Also, obese men may experience changes in expression of proteins in the seminal plasma , which could affect the fertilization process. Thus, this project aims to validate seminal proteins that have potential to be biomarkers of male infertility related to obesity. For this, 60 men (30 obese and 30 eutrophic men) will collect one semen sample (by masturbation), and one aliquot will be used for conventional semen analysis according to the World Health Organization recommendations and the remaining volume will be centrifuged. In this way the seminal plasma of each sample will be used for validation of the potential biomarkers using Western blotting analysis. (AU)