New Insights into Male Infertility and Sperm Biology
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2026 | Viewed by 1467
Special Issue Editor
Interests: male infertility; sperm biology; oxidative stress; sperm DNA fragmentation; semen analysis; flow cytometry; nutrition; environmental pollution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleague,
Male infertility affects about 7% of men, and, in a large percentage of patients, the causes are unknown. This scenario is expected to worsen in future years as recent data have reported a heavy and still-occurring worldwide decline in sperm count, likely due the deep changes in lifestyle and environmental factors. Routine semen analysis is the cornerstone test for diagnoses of male infertility, but subtler sperm defects than those detected through this test are likely involved. Assisted reproductive technologies provide a chance at parenthood for infertile couples, but their success rate is limited due to the iatrogenic damage occurring during the in vitro manipulation of gametes and embryos.
Hence, there is a need to continue to investigate both the causes of infertility and of damage in sperm structure and function, as well as the factors associated with the decline in the sperm potential of fecundation. Studies concerning sperm DNA fragmentation, oxidative stress, and nuclear condensation have developed our knowledge, but there are still uncertainties to be addressed before they can thoroughly benefit the clinical practice. Furthermore, high-throughput techniques, genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics are expected to provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms of spermatogenesis and sperm function. The goal is to find new strategies of prevention and treatments for male infertility and for sperm populations used in ART.
Being led by Dr. Monica Muratori and assisted by our Topical Advisory Panel Member Dr. Oumaima Ammar (University of Florence), this Special Issue will focus on novel insights concerning sperm markers for male infertility that have been established by recent research or are promising according to emerging data. With your distinguished expertise in this area, we invite you to consider submitting a contribution to this Special Issue.
Dr. Monica Muratori
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- male infertility
- sperm DNA fragmentation
- sperm oxidative stress
- sperm nuclear condensation
- assisted reproductive technologies
- genomics
- epigenomics
- transcriptomics
- proteomics
- metabolomics
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