Expression of MCM6 in the Sperm of Teratozoospermia Infertile Males

Objectives: MCM6 is an essential member of the MCM family and a key component of the DNA replication machinery that regulates cell cycle progression and genome stability. Previous studies suggested that genome integrity is an important factor in male infertility. Therefore, reducing the expression of this gene may be effective in male infertility, which has not been investigated yet. We aimed to evaluate the expression level of this gene in the sperm of infertile males with teratozoospermia and compare it with control individuals. Material and Methods: In this study, we included a total of 20 fertile healthy males in the control group and 40 individuals with teratozoospermia in the case group. After cDNA synthesis and total RNA extraction, relative quantification was carried out. The normalizer gene utilized was GAPDH, and the fold change was computed using the 2-(Delta Delta Ct) formula. Considering a significance threshold of P < 0.05, a t-test was employed to compare the expression levels between the case and control groups. Results: According to our findings, teratozoospermia males had significantly lower levels of MCM6 (logFC=0.065) than controls. Moreover, the DNA fragmentation index of normal individuals was 16.00 +/- 3.00, while this index was 33.72 +/- 5.098 for teratozoospermia patients. Conclusions: Since MCM6 downregulation is associated with teratozoospermia, it might be proposed as a possible candidate gene for the progression of this condition. Also, it could be considered as a potential diagnostic marker and have other therapeutic uses.