REVIEW  HOT TOPICS IN MALE INFERTILITY 

Panminerva Medica 2019 June;61(2):108-17

DOI: 10.23736/S0031-0808.18.03529-2

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Oxidation reduction potential: a new biomarker of male infertility

Ana D. MARTINS ^{1, 2, 3}, Ashok AGARWAL ¹ ✉

¹ American Center for Reproductive Medicine, Department of Urology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA; ² Department of Microscopy, Laboratory of Cell Biology, Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; ³ Unit for Multidisciplinary Research in Biomedicine, Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Oxidative stress is considered a major etiology for male infertility, more specifically idiopathic infertility. The causes of seminal oxidative stress can be intrinsic, such as varicocele or due to the presence of active leukocytes and immature germ cells. Reported external causes are smoking, alcohol or exposure to environmental toxins. Traditional methods to determine the seminal oxidative stress do not evaluate this status directly, but rather measure its components or intermediate products indirectly, instead. The major disadvantages of the traditional methods are related with time and cost as these methods are extremely time consuming and require expensive equipment, consumables and highly skilled laboratory personnel. To overcome these drawbacks, the MiOXSYS® system, a method which directly measures the oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), was developed. The evaluation of the ORP using MiOXSYS® is cost-effective, easy and quick. However, this newly introduced method to evaluate the oxidative status of semen still requires validation in different andrology laboratory settings across the world.

KEY WORDS: Male infertility - Oxidation-reduction - Oxidative stress - Semen analysis