| Autor: |
Giulia Rastrelli, Selene Degl’Innocenti, Andrea Liaci, Elisabetta Baldi, Arcangelo Sebastianelli, Mauro Gacci, Francesco Annunziato, Rossella Nicoletti, Claudia Zaccaro, Simona Pollini, Sabrina Nicolò, Alberto Antonelli, Linda Vignozzi, Sara Marchiani, Maria Torcia, Mario Maggi, A. Manera, Simone Morselli, A. Pecoraro, Sergio Serni, Cosimo De Nunzio, Alessandra Fanelli |
| Rok vydání: |
2021 |
| Předmět: |
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| DOI: |
10.21203/rs.3.rs-646778/v1 |
| Popis: |
Background: Recent reports evidenced an impairment of semen parameters in men affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In particular, our group previously reported that 1 over 4 COVID-19 healed men were found to be crypto- / azoo-spermic. Moreover, most patients had elevated IL-8 semen levels at sperm analysis. The aim of our study was to assess semen parameters and inflammation by evaluating a panel of sperm cytokine levels (IL-1, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17, INF gamma, TNF-alpha) on average 1 month after the second SARS-CoV-2 negative nasopharyngeal swab and 3 months later. Methods: Ten men who showed normozoospermia (n=3), oligozoospermia (n=3) or crypto/azoospermia (n=4) 1 month after healing from COVID-19 in our previous study, were re-called and re-evaluated 3 months after the first semen analysis. Semen parameters were evaluated according to WHO manual and seminal plasma cytokine levels by an ELISA method. Results: At 3-months follow-up, 8 men showed an overall increase of semen parameters compared to levels assessed after 1 month. In particular, of the 4 crypto-/azoo-spermic men 1 month after healing, 2 resulted oligozoospermic, 1 normozoospermic and only 1 remained azoospermic. Two of the 3 oligozoospermic men turned normozoozpermic. Semen cytokine levels were remarkably high one month after healing and remained elevated after 3 months, with the exception of IL-6. Conclusions: This is the first longitudinal, prospective study comparing semen parameters and semen inflammatory markers one and three months after recovering from COVID-19. Our data indicate an overall tendency to an improvement of semen parameters although a genital tract inflammatory condition appears to persist at least 3 months after COVID-19 recovery. This condition could have an impact on male fertility requiring a careful follow up of these patients. |
| Databáze: |
OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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