EFFECTS OF OXIDATIVE STRESS AND HEAVY METALS OF MALE FERTILITY | ||||
| Biochemistry Letters | ||||
| Article 6, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2011, Page 99-122 PDF (337.34 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/blj.2010.64248 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| Salem A. Habib1; El-Shahat A. Toson1; Rizk A. El-Baz2; Marwa E. Elafify1 | ||||
| 1Chemistry Department (Biochemistry Division), Faculty of science (Damietta), Mansoura University, Egypt | ||||
| 2Children Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Defective sperm function is the most common cause of male infertility. The major causative factor of this process is the presence of oxidative stress which induce lipid peroxidative damage to the sperm membrane. This process was partially evaluated by the assay of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and measurement of reduced glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Many metals are discharged as environmental pollutants and may affect semen profiles. So, iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and cadmium (Cd) as well as the proteins pattern of both seminal plasma and spermatozoal homogenate supernatant were also evaluated. The present study includes 70 normospermic individuals (control, 32.4%) and 146 infertile men. The latter group were further classified according to the defects in their semen parameters into asthenozoospermic (n= 48), oligo-asthenozoospermic (n= 18), oligo-astheno-teratozoospermic (n= 41) and azoospermic (n= 39) groups. Significance of difference among the groups and coefficient of correlation between the parameters were tested statistically. The protein contents of seminal plasma were nearly the same in all groups but that of the spermatozoa were highly significantly increased (P<0.01) when compared to control. The spermatozoal proteins were correlated with their abnormalities (r= 0.78), densities (r= -0.5), and motilities (r= -0.7). On the other hand, MDA levels were highly significantly increased and the GSH levels were highly significantly decreased in both seminal plasma and spermatozoal homogenate supernatant of the infertile men comparing with control. Also, they were correlated with the quality of the spermatozoa. Concerning SOD activity, it was highly significantly decreased (P<0.01) in seminal plasma but was highly significantly increased (P<0.01) in spermatozoal homogenate supernatant of the oligo-astheno-teratozoospermic males when compared to control. In conclusion, the parameters of oxidative stress and the levels of the heavy metals were associated with human male infertility and may be useful tools in predicting semen quality. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Human male infertility; Malondialdehyde; superoxide dismutase; reduced glutathione; divalent heavy metals | ||||
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