Fellico, Fiammetta (2022) Charaterization and quantification of semen-rheological properties and sperm motility. [Tesi di dottorato]
Anteprima |
Testo
Fellico_Fiammetta_34.pdf Download (3MB) | Anteprima |
Tipologia del documento: | Tesi di dottorato |
---|---|
Lingua: | English |
Titolo: | Charaterization and quantification of semen-rheological properties and sperm motility |
Autori: | Autore Email Fellico, Fiammetta fiammetta.fellico@unina.it |
Data: | 7 Giugno 2022 |
Numero di pagine: | 58 |
Istituzione: | Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II |
Dipartimento: | Ingegneria Chimica, dei Materiali e della Produzione Industrialea |
Dottorato: | Ingegneria dei prodotti e dei processi industriali |
Ciclo di dottorato: | 34 |
Coordinatore del Corso di dottorato: | nome email D'Anna, Andrea anddanna@unina.it |
Tutor: | nome email Guido, Stefano [non definito] |
Data: | 7 Giugno 2022 |
Numero di pagine: | 58 |
Parole chiave: | Rheology of seminal fluid |
Settori scientifico-disciplinari del MIUR: | Area 09 - Ingegneria industriale e dell'informazione > ING-IND/24 - Principi di ingegneria chimica |
Depositato il: | 27 Giu 2022 16:24 |
Ultima modifica: | 28 Feb 2024 11:05 |
URI: | http://www.fedoa.unina.it/id/eprint/14389 |
Abstract
Infertility affects 15% of couples of reproductive age worldwide, with increasing prevalence rates that are, in many areas, such as USA and Europe, below the rate required to sustain the current population levels. In particular, a decrease of male fertility as well as semen quality has been registered in the last years. Currently the spermiogram, the routine analysis of the seminal fluid, represents the backbone of semen characterization. However, the spermiogram is not sufficient to test the fertilizing capacity as it tends to just consider semen parameters such as concentration, motility and morphology of spermatozoa, neglecting other fundamental external factors and causes. In fact, it may happen that a seminal fluid classified as normospermic is not able to generate a pregnancy in cases where female problem can be ruled out. In such situations, we talk about male idiopathic infertility. The latter can be attributed to multiple damages to the semen, such as defects in spermatogenesis, hormonal problems, oxidative stress, and genetic abnormalities. The causes of these complications can be also highly affected by lifestyle. One possible way to increase the predictive power of the spermiogram, thus allowing to capture semen defects which go undetected in the current routine testing, is to improve the quantitative analysis of the semen rheological response by looking for a signature of pathological conditions. In this work, a thorough analysis of semen viscoelasticity by well-established rheological techniques, as opposed to the operator-dependent methods used in routine testing, is carried out on samples which have been classified as normal or pathological according to their spermiogram. The results of this work suggest that elasticity, in addition to viscosity, plays a fundamental role in sperm motility and can be used as a marker of sperm transport capacity, thus inspiring advances in diagnostic methods and medical treatments for male infertility.
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)
![]() |
Modifica documento |