Andrologia. 2018;e13146. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/and | 1 of 7 https://doi.org/10.1111/and.13146 © 2018 Blackwell Verlag GmbH 1 | INTRODUCTION Asthenozoospermia is one of the main causes of male infertility, which affects approximately 19% of infertile men (Curi et al., 2003). It is characterised by reduced motility or absent of sperm motility in the semen samples. Sperm motility, as one of the most import‐ ant indicators in assessing men’s fertility potential, has an important role in participating natural fertilisation process and assisted repro‐ ductive techniques (ART; Isidori, Latini, & Romanelli, 2005). Sperm motility is affected by various factors ranging from genetic disor‐ ders (Kartagener syndrome, cystic fibrosis), metabolic and structural syndromes (mitochondrial and flagellum deficiency), to molecular phenomena such as programmed cell death or apoptosis procedure (Aitken & Baker, 2013; Chen, Ruan, Xu, Chen, & Chan, 2012; Sha, Ding, & Li, 2014). The role of apoptosis in male infertility has attracted consid‐ erable research interest because it affects sperm differentiation and testicular maturity and prevents the immature spermatozoa from participating in the egg fertilisation (Aitken & Baker, 2013). Caspases (cysteinyl aspartate‐specific proteases) are the main trans‐ ducers and effectors of the apoptosis signals in the human seminif‐ erous epithelium and are involved in the pathogenesis of impaired Received: 31 May 2018 | Revised: 3 August 2018 | Accepted: 14 August 2018 DOI: 10.1111/and.13146 ORIGINAL ARTICLE SCSA results correlated with rate of motility reduction after ejaculation in Asthenozoospermia Zohreh Moradian Fard 1 | Majid Naghdi 2 | Peyman Salehi 3 | Seyedeh Zahra Shahrokhi 4 | Ali Ajami 5 | Mohammad Reza Deemeh 4,5 | Mohammad Hassan Meshkibaf 1 1 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Fasa University of Medical Science, Fasa, Iran 2 Department of Anatomy, Fasa University of Medical Science, Fasa, Iran 3 Urologist, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Shahid Beheshti Infertility Center, Isfahan, Iran 4 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 5 Andrology Department, Nobel Mega‐ Laboratory, Isfahan, Iran Correspondence Mohammad H. Meshkibaf, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Fasa University of Medical Science, Fasa, Iran. Email: meshkibaf2000@gmail.com Abstract Maintaining sperm motility after ejaculation is important for fertilisation. Apoptosis may play an important role to reduce sperm motility after ejaculation. The aim of this study was to perceive whether or not an increase in apoptosis reduces sperm motility in a higher degree after ejaculation and whether it can be predicted by laboratory tests, such as sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA). Fifty‐one Asthenozoospermia and 20 fertile subjects participated in this study. SCSA was ap‐ plied using flow cytometry. Fluorescein‐labelled inhibitors of Caspases (FLICA) method was used for assessment of active Caspase‐3. Motility was assessed every 2 hr after ejaculation for 12 hr. Both SCSA and spermatozoa with active Caspase‐3 were significantly correlated with the rate of motility reduction after ejaculation. In the subgroups who had SCSA <27% and active Caspase‐3 <40%, the sperm motility reduction significantly occurred 6–8 hr after ejaculation compared to the fresh sample. In the cases of SCSA ≥27% and active Caspase‐3 ≥ 40%, a significant de‐ crease in motility was observed between 2 and 4 hr after ejaculation. The result demonstrated a significant trend in the rate of sperm motility reduction with SCSA increase, which suggests SCSA may indirectly show a good scheme of apoptosis status and may forecast the rate of motility reduction after ejaculation in Asthenozoospermia. KEYWORDS apoptosis, Caspases, SCSA, sperm DNA damage, sperm motility