Urogenital Tract Infection due to Staphylococcus aureus in Infertile Male Patients

Background: Urogenital tract infections due to Staphylococcus aureus have been known with infertility and bacteria are able to spermatozoa immobilization and agglutination. Objectives: In this study, we aimed to determine the frequency of S. aureus in semen obtained from infertile male patients in northwest Iran. Methods: In this study, seminal fluids of 100 infertile men were evaluated. Standard semen analysis was performed according to WHO guidelines. After isolation, identification and determination of susceptibility against important antibiotics, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to identify mecA and tst genes. Results: Data obtained from the present study shows that 16% of infertile male patients were colonized by S. aureus. Ten (62.5%) of the individuals had abnormal seminal fluid sperm morphology and motility and three (18.8%) of them had an abnormal seminal fluid density, whereas after washing with albumin-saline declined to 5 (31.3%), 4 (25%) and 1 (6.3%), respectively. The results of antibiotic susceptibility testing showed that except of penicillin, other antibiotics have high activity on isolates. Regarding PCR results, mecA sequences were detected in 3 (18.7%) strains, whilst the tst gene encoding TSST-1 was not detected in any of clinical strains. Conclusions: It would appear that the S. aureus may be an additional negative factor worsening sperm quality and affecting male fertility. Therefore, it demands that the all patients attending in infertility treatment facilities be investigated thoroughly.

کلیدواژه ها:

Infertility ، Staphylococcus aureus ، Seminal fluid ، mecA