SPERM
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Spectroscopic probes of energy regulation and metabolism (SPERM): Using high resolution MR spectroscopy to identify biomarkers of male fertility
IRAS ID
188881
Contact name
Allan Pacey
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 29 days
Research summary
In 50% of couples undergoing IVF there is a problem with the sperm from the male partner. Whilst often the problem is because the male has a low sperm count, sometimes it is because his sperm don’t swim very well. In such cases, sperm can be injected into his partner’s eggs to help fertilisation happen (a process called Intra-cytoplasmic Sperm Injection or ICSI). But this adds to the cost of infertility treatment and is not always funded by the NHS. Currently there are no effective therapies to improve poor sperm motility, but to be able to give sperm a ‘boost’ might avoid the need for ICSI in preference to less technical ones, or could avoid the need for assisted conception altogether.
Unfortunately we know little about how sperm generate the energy necessary for their tail to beat and power them forwards. There are a number of ways they could do this and a range of different ‘fuels’ they could burn. In this project we propose to use some of the techniques developed by radiologists to examine the energy pathways used by cancer cells to develop new chemotherapy treatments. These rely on detecting the molecular signature of atoms when they are placed in a magnetic field and are very similar to how doctors scan a patient to see inside them (MRI).
We will obtain semen from men with different fertilities and prepare their sperm to be scanned by MRI. We will examine whether we can see differences in the molecules used to make and provide sperm energy between men whose sperm swim well and those whose sperm swim badly. We will also attempt to separate good swimming sperm from poor swimming sperm in the same man, to see if we can detect differences.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
16/NS/0009
Date of REC Opinion
11 Jan 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion