Seminal plasma is a potential source of biomarkers for many disorders of the male reproductive system including male infertility. Knowledge of the peptide and protein components of seminal fluid is accumulating especially with the appearance of high-throughput MS-based techniques. Of special interest in the field of male infertility biomarkers, is the identification and characterization of differentially expressed proteins in seminal plasma of men with normal and impaired spermatogenesis. However, the data obtained until now is still quite heterogeneous and with small percentage of overlap between independent studies. Extensive comparative analysis of seminal plasma proteome is still needed in order to establish a potential link between seminal plasma proteins and male infertility.
Keywords: Biomarkers; Male infertility; Mass spectrometry (MS); Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF); Seminal plasma; Two- dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE); Two-dimensional differential ingel electrophoresis (2-D DIGE).