Alpha 2.0
Login Register
» Articles » PMID: 39345316

The Temporary Impact of COVID-19 on Semen Deoxyribonucleic Acid Fragmentation

Overview
Journal Cent European J Urol
Specialty Urology
Date 2024 Sep 30
PMID 39345316
Authors
Mykola Kvach
Oleg Nikitin
Andriy Kost
Oleg Banyra
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized by impact on different systems of human body. Recently, several anti-COVID vaccines have been developed.

Material And Methods: In our study, we included two groups of males: GROUP1, anti-COVID vaccinated males, n = 46, and GROUP2, n = 43, non-vaccinated males, who all fell ill with the Coronavirus infection. A level of semen DNA fragmentation was characterized by Sperm DNA Fragmentation Index (SDFI) that was calculated before infection and compared with data at every month after laboratory recovery. The Mann-Whitney test was used to establish differences between parameters, with p <0.05 considered significant.

Results: Compared with the pre-COVID baseline we registered significant increasing of SDFI in each group of participants: 35.3 ±4.7% vs 18.6 ±5.8% in GROUP1, p = 0.0009, and 41.8 ±5.6% vs 19.2 ±6.1% in GROUP2, p = 0.0006. At the 2 month after recovery SDFI in GROUP1 and GROUP2 continued to grow and reached its peak to 40.6 ±6.4% and 49.7 ±7.2% respectively. Thereafter SDF indexes in both Groups started to decrease, normalizing at the 7 month after COVID-19 recovery in GROUP1 and at the 9 month in GROUP2.

Conclusions: COVID-19 causes a gradual increase in semen DNA fragmentation, which peaks at the 2 month after recovery and is more pronounced in unvaccinated men. Normalization of SDFI occurs no earlier than at the 7 month in vaccinated and at the 9 month in non-vaccinated men.

References
1.
Soraci L, Lattanzio F, Soraci G, Gambuzza M, Pulvirenti C, Cozza A . COVID-19 Vaccines: Current and Future Perspectives. Vaccines (Basel). 2022; 10(4). PMC: 9025326. DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10040608. View
2.
Hu B, Liu K, Ruan Y, Wei X, Wu Y, Feng H . Evaluation of mid- and long-term impact of COVID-19 on male fertility through evaluating semen parameters. Transl Androl Urol. 2022; 11(2):159-167. PMC: 8899150. DOI: 10.21037/tau-21-922. View
3.
Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J . A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020; 382(8):727-733. PMC: 7092803. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. View
4.
Chen Q, Zhao J, Xue X, Zhu G . The association between sperm DNA fragmentation and reproductive outcomes following intrauterine insemination, a meta analysis. Reprod Toxicol. 2019; 86:50-55. DOI: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2019.03.004. View
5.
Ding J, Shang X, Zhang Z, Jing H, Shao J, Fei Q . FDA-approved medications that impair human spermatogenesis. Oncotarget. 2016; 8(6):10714-10725. PMC: 5354694. DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.12956. View