Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers have discovered a unique approach for measuring the age of male sperm has the potential to predict pregnancy success and timing.
A new sperm age measurement could predict pregnancy success. Pregnancy, often known as gestation, is the period of time when one or more children grow within a woman’s womb. A multiple pregnancy births more than one offspring, such as twins.
Pregnancy is normally caused through sexual intercourse, however, it can also be caused via assisted reproductive technology procedures. Pregnancy may result in a live birth, spontaneous miscarriage, induced abortion, or stillbirth. Childbirth usually happens approximately 40 weeks after the last menstrual cycle begins.
According to a recent study conducted by scientists at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, a novel technique for measuring the age of male sperm has the potential to predict pregnancy success and time.
The research, which was published on May 13th, 2022 in the journal Human Reproduction, discovered that sperm epigenetic aging clocks may operate as a potential biomarker to estimate couples’ time to conception. The results also highlight the importance of the male partner in successful reproduction.
“Chronological age is a significant determinant of reproductive capacity and success among couples attempting pregnancy, but chronological age does not encapsulate the cumulative genetic and external – environmental conditions – factors, and thus it serves as a proxy measure of the ‘true’ biological age of cells,” said J. Richard Pilsner, Ph.D., lead author of the study. Dr. Pilsner is the Robert J. Sokol, M.D., Endowed Chair of Molecular Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of Molecular Genetics and Infertility at WSU’s C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development.
“Semen quality outcomes utilizing World Health Organization guidelines have been used to assess male infertility for decades, but they remain poor predictors of reproductive outcomes. Thus, the ability to capture the biological age of sperm may provide a novel platform to better assess the male contribution to reproductive success, especially among infertile couples.”
Richard Pilsner, Ph.D., the Robert J. Sokol, M.D., Endowed Chair of Molecular Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of Molecular Genetics and Infertility at the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development, Wayne State University. Credit: Wayne State University
Sperm epigenetic aging is the biological aging of sperm rather than chronological aging. The research discovered a 17% lower cumulative probability of conception after 12 months for couples with male partners in older sperm epigenetic aging categories compared to younger sperm epigenetic aging categories. The research comprised 379 male partners of couples who had stopped using contraception in order to become pregnant.
The research also discovered that males who smoked had higher epigenetic age of their sperm.
The results, Dr. Pilsner said, indicate that higher sperm epigenetic aging is associated with a longer time to become pregnant in couples not assisted by fertility treatment, and among couples that achieved pregnancy, with shorter gestation.
The strong association between sperm epigenetic aging and pregnancy probability and its slowing or reversal through lifestyle choices and/or pharmacological interventions warrants further investigation. In addition, because older fathers have an increased risk of children with adverse neurological outcomes, it is important to understand the potential relation of sperm epigenetic aging on children’s health and development.
“There is a critical need for new measures of male fecundity for assessing overall reproductive success among couples in the general population,” Dr. Pilsner said. “These data show that our sperm epigenetic clocks may fulfill this need as a novel biomarker that predicts pregnancy success among couples not seeking fertility treatment. While the chronological age of both partners remains a significant predictor of reproductive success, our clocks likely recapitulate both external and internal factors that drive the biological aging of sperm. Such a summary measure of sperm biological age is of clinical importance, as it allows couples in the general population to realize their probability of achieving pregnancy during natural intercourse, thereby informing and expediting potential infertility treatment decisions.”
Dr. Pilsner advised that because those studied were largely Caucasian, greater and more diverse cohorts are necessary to confirm the association between sperm epigenetic aging and couple pregnancy success in other races and ethnicities.
Reference: “Sperm epigenetic clock associates with pregnancy outcomes in the general population” by J Richard Pilsner, Hachem Saddiki, Brian W Whitcomb, Alexander Suvorov, Germaine M Buck Louis, Sunni L Mumford, Enrique F Schisterman, Oladele A Oluwayiose and Laura B Balzer, 13 May 2022, Human Reproduction.
Reference: 10.1093/humrep/deac084
The research was funded in part by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (R01ES028298 and P30 ES020957); and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (N01-HD-3-3355, N01-HD-3-3356, and N01-HD-3-3358).
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