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Oxidative stress, DNA damage and apoptosis in male infertility: a clinical approach
Author(s) -
Agarwal Ashok,
Said Tamer M.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
bju international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1464-410X
pISSN - 1464-4096
DOI - 10.1111/j.1464-410x.2005.05328.x
Subject(s) - oxidative stress , infertility , dna damage , apoptosis , male infertility , oxidative damage , dna , medicine , bioinformatics , biology , andrology , genetics , pregnancy
clearly independent measures of sperm quality. Therefore, pathogenic ROS levels or poor-quality sperm chromatin structure may be considered indicative of male subfertility [1,2].IDIOPATHIC INFERTILITYMen with idiopathic infertility generally present with signicantly higher seminal ROS levels and lower antioxidant properties than healthy controls [3]. Therefore, it appears that the presence of OS in infertile normozoospermic men may be the cause behind previously unexplained cases of infertility. Similarly, sperm DNA damage analysis may reveal hidden sperm DNA abnormalities in infertile men with normal standard sperm values who were diagnosed with idiopathic infertility. The increase in sperm DNA damage in these patients may be partly related to high levels of seminal OS.Finally and importantly, some conditions may pass unnoticed but still affect the sperm genomic integrity. In one case report [4], a fertile patient who had inuenza and a 1-day fever of 39.9 ∞ C presented with a relatively high percentage of sperm with damaged DNA (36%) 18 days after the onset of his fever.GENITAL TRACT INFECTIONSGenital tract infections are usually associated with leukocytospermia and elevated ROS levels, as leukocytes represent the major source of ROS production in ejaculates. Although leukocytes are a constant component of human ejaculates and virtually no semen sample is free of them, if the prevalence of leukocytes exceeds normal values (1 ¥ 10