Abstract:

Introduction: Infertility is a health problem that negatively affects couples and society in many ways and is becoming increasingly common. It is estimated that 30-40% of these problems are caused by men. It was aimed to determine whether natural killer (Natural Killer: NK) cell activity changes in male individuals with different degrees of infertility problems and in individuals with normal sperm count and concentration (normozoospermia). Methods: NK cell activities were measured from blood samples taken from individuals who were determined to be oligozoospermia, severe-oligozoospermia, oligoastenoozospermia, azoospermia and idiopathic as a result of semen analysis with from individuals diagnosed normozoospermia (n:120). Results: NK cell activity in blood was observed as the lowest in normozoospermia (544.46 pg/ml), but the highest value measured in severe oligozoospermia group (1005.90 pg/ml). On the other hand, NK cell activity was measured 797.60 ± 428.55 pg/ml, 905.34 ± 430.60 pg/ml, 757.66 ± 541.16 pg/ml and 639.44 ± 385.50 pg/ml in oligozoospermia, oligoastenozoospermia, azoospermia and idiopathic groups respectively. While the difference in NK activity between the severe oligozospermia group and the other groups was significant (p<0.05), the differences between the other groups were not significant (p >0.05). Conclusion: It was determined that NK cell activity was higher in individuals with severe oligozoospermia than normozoospermia, oligozoospermia, oligoastenozoospermia, azoospermia and idiopathic individuals.

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