Investigation of seminal plasma chitotriosidase-1 and leukocyte elastase as potential markers for 'silent' inflammation of the reproductive tract of the infertile male - a pilot study.

ABSTRACT

Inflammatory mediators - chitotriosidase-1 (CHIT1) and leukocyte elastase (LE) - were analyzed in human seminal plasma in relation to total antioxidative status (TAS) and pro-inflammatory markers IL-1ß and IL-6. Samples collected from 34 males who were part of infertile couples were divided into normozoospermic (N; n = 12, without symptoms of inflammation), oligozoospermic (O; n = 11) and teratozoospermic (T; n = 11) groups. significant differences were observed only in CHIT1 concentration between N and O samples. However, a higher mean LE concentration was also observed in O and T patients (3.7-times and 900-times, respectively) compared with the N group. in IL-1ß and IL-6 concentrations, an upward trend was observed from N, through O, up to the T group. The positive correlation between the concentration of IL-1ß and the activity and specific activity of CHIT11 as well as the moderate negative correlation between concentrations of IL-1ß and CHIT1 may suggest that elevated CHIT11 levels appeared in early stages of inflammation before the increase in IL-1ß concentrations, or remained stable even after the levels of cytokine decreased. The above seem to confirm the role of CHIT1 in the manifestation of 'silent' inflammation at a very early stage. To conclude, CHIT1 concentration appears to be an interesting biomarker that signals the presence of possible 'silent' inflammation accompanying oligozoospermia. We cannot draw such conclusions regarding LE concentration, because, although we observed differences in the mean values and medians between analyzed groups, they were not significant. The utility of CHIT1 in the follow-up of oligozoospermia-associated 'silent' subclinical inflammation is promising, but further studies on a larger patient test set are required.