Use of PCR to Detect Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum from Semen Samples of Infertile Men who Referred to Royan Institute in 2009

Objective: Infection with genital Mycoplasmas may have harm effects on the reproduc- tive health of men, thus leading to male infertility. This study was performed to detect the prevalence of these bacteria and to study the sperm parameters in infertile men who referred to Royan Institute during 2009. Materials and Methods: Semen samples were collected from 220 infertile men and di- vided into three sections. The first section was used for semen analysis, the second sec- tion for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in which U4 and U5 primers were used for the amplification of the urease gene of U. urealyticum, and RNAH1 and RNAH2 primers were used for amplification of the 16S rRNA gene of M. hominis. Results: From a total of 220 semen samples cultured, 15.5% of M. hominis and 40.5% of U. urealyticum were isolated. Evaluation of semen parameters showed a lower pH in the U. urealyticum positive group and the group which was positive for both bacteria, rather than the group which contained no bacteria (p=0.007 and p=0.000, respectively). Also, the mean sperm motility was lower in the group which was positive for both bacteria when compared with the U. urealyticum positive group (p=0.009). Conclusion: The results of this study show that a high percent of infertile men are infect- ed with these bacteria which may lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and infertility, thus isolation of these bacteria in infertile couples with no clinical symptoms is necessary and can be a part of a sexual transmitted disease (STD) control program.