Elsevier

Reproductive Biology

Volume 11, Issue 2, July 2011, Pages 135-144
Reproductive Biology

ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Total reactive antioxidant potential and DNA fragmentation index as fertility sperm parameters

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1642-431X(12)60050-3Get rights and content

SUMMARY

There is a growing evidence that oxidative stress play a major role in the etiology of defective sperm function including impaired morphology, motility, metabolism and fertility. The aim of the present study was to examine: 1/ total reactive antioxidant potential (TRAP) in seminal plasma; 2/ sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI), 3/ sperm morphology and motility and 4/ cellular membrane integrity (hypoosmotic swelling test: HOS test) in patients attending in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmatic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) program. According to the DFI value, the men were divided into: group 1 with DFI ≤15% (n=38) and group 2 with DFI ≥15% (n=37). Significant differences between the two groups were found in TRAP, sperm motility, morphology and concentration as well as HOS test scores. In group 1, DFI was negatively correlated with sperm motility and HOS test scores (p<0.05). The sperm morphology was positively correlated with sperm motility and HOS test scores in both groups. There was no correlation between TRAP and sperm chromatin fragmentation. Our results suggest that seminal plasma TRAP level may be a DFI independent parameter of sperm fertility.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

Many reports proved the standard sperm analysis including sperm morphology, concentration and motility is not a sufficient fertility diagnostics. Besides psychological, environmental and genetic factors influencing fertility, the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the failure of the antioxidant system seem to draw great attention from the scientific world. In comparison with fertile patients, the patients with idiopathic infertility generally present a significantly higher

Patients and standard semen analysis

Semen specimens were collected after three or four days of sexual abstinence from 75 patients aged 24-35 years (±28.5) attending an IVF/ICSI program at the Novomedica Center in Mysłowice, Poland. The semen samples (n=75) were assessed according to standard criteria recommended by WHO [24] and classified as follows: the cut-of value for normal sperm (normozoospermia: N) concentration at ≥20×10−6/ml, normal sperm morphology at ≥30%, and sperm motility at ≥50% spermatozoa with rapid (category A) +

RESULTS

The human subjects from group 1 (DFI ≤15%) had a significantly (p<0.001) lower DFI than those from group 2 (DFI ≥15%; tab. 1). The mean total antioxidant capacity and sperm concentration were higher (p<0.05) in group 1 compared to group 2. The sperm progressive motility (p<0.01) as well as the percentage of normal spermatozoa (p<0.001) were also higher in group 1 than in group 2. Finally, men from group 1 exhibited higher (p<0.01) HOS test scores in comparison to those from group 2 (tab. 1).

DISCUSSION

Several studies implied that sperm parameters such as motility, concentration, cellular membrane integrity are unreliable predictors of a successful outcome in assisted reproduction treatment (IVF/ICSI) and embryo transfer [4, 15]. These parameters do not identify subtle defects which may be associated with DNA fragmentation [4, 5, 7]. In contrast, the formation of reactive oxygen species and the ROS level correlate with sperm motility [8]. Aziz et al. [3] showed that the ROS production was

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