Background: The aim of this study was to compare the sperm protein profile between oligo- and normozoospermic patients with varicocele.
Materials and Methods: Sperm samples of 20 normozoospermic and 20 oligozoospermic patients with varicocele were characterized using two dimensional electrophoresis (group 1 and group 2, respectively). Differences in protein expression were established using gel analysis software before attempted protein identification by Mass.
Results: In the group 2 samples, we have noted 30 consistent differences in protein expression (4 spots missing, 16 more abundant, 10 less abundant) compared with the group 1.
Conclusion: We have showed that sperm proteome in patients with varicocele is highly various. The identified proteins demonstrated that varicocele effect on proteins including heat shock proteins, mitochondrial proteins, and cytoskeleton proteins and so on. This study represents a proof of principle that proteomics may be useful to study male infertility and defects in sperm function.