Impact of Testis Inflammatory State on Sperm Vitality.
To investigate the potential impacy of SARS-CoV-2 infection on sperm concentration, motility and vitality, we assessed macroscopic and microscopic parameters of seminal fluid (Table 1 ). Our findings, as shown in Figure 1, confirmed that spermatozoa with higher motility percentages exhibited greater vitality scores (p=0,0334;Figure 1 ). Furthermore, we analyzed the presence of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in the seminal fluid of our cohort (Figure 2A ) to evaluate the inflammatory state of the testis. Specifically, we observed elevated levels of IL-6, IFN-γ and IL-8. Notably, the concentration of IL-6 positively correlated with concentration of IL-8 (p<0,0001; Figure 2B ), and the two samples with the highest IL-6 concentration had also exhibited the highest IL-8 level (red circle, Figure 2A ).
To determine whether high levels of inflammatory cytokines could impact spermatozoa and affect vitality and motility we conducted linear regression analyses. Interestingly, we found that IL-6 and IL-8 level did not significantly influence spermatozoa motility (Figure 3A ), but both cytokine levels were positively correlated with reduced spermatozoa vitality (IL-6 p=0,0493 and IL-8 p=0.0350; Figure 3B ). Additionally, we explored the correlations among various inflammatory cytokines and chemokines detected in the seminal plasma. Notably, we observed a positive correlation between GMCSF level and IL-6 (p=0,0097; Figure 4A ), GMCSF and IFN-γ (p=0,0219;Figure 4B ), TNF and IFN-γ (p=0,035; Figure 4C ).