ABSTRACT
About 84" of general population is able to conceive after 12 months of unprotected and regular intercourse. However, 9" of women aged 20-44 years are unable to achieve a live birth during this period and often seek reproductive care. The study of sperm proteins started more than a century ago with the isolation and identification by Friedrich Miescher in 1874 of a proteinaceous basic component from the sperm cell that he called "protamine" and that he found was coupled to what he called "nuclein" or what people know as DNA. The final step in a proteomic analysis is accomplished through mass spectrometry peptide and protein identification. Initial proteomic methods were developed that involved matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight, which relies on the accurate determination of peptide masses and comparison to peptide mass databases in search for identities. Comparative semen proteomic studies from various functional states have produced a large number of candidate fertility biomarkers.
