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Antioxidants and Other Potent Strategies to Reduce Oxidative Stress in Semen

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Free Radicals in Human Health and Disease

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Abstract

Oxidative stress (OS) has been considered a major contributory factor to the male infertility. It is the result of imbalance between the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants in the body which can lead to sperm damage, deformity, and eventually male infertility. Although high concentrations of the ROS cause sperm pathology (ATP depletion) leading to insufficient axonemal phosphorylation, lipid peroxidation, and loss of motility and viability, but many evidences demonstrate that low and controlled concentrations of these ROS play an important role in sperm physiological processes such as capacitation, acrosome reaction, and signaling processes to ensure fertilization. ROS are also generated during cryopreservation of spermatozoa for AI practices. To reduce the oxidative stress, there are certain compounds and reactions which dispose, scavenge, and suppress the formation of ROS or oppose their actions are called antioxidants. Currently, many antioxidants are under investigation. The supplementation of a cryopreservation extender with antioxidant has been shown to provide a cryoprotective effect on mammalian sperm quality. This chapter explains the impacts of oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species on spermatozoa functions, causes of ROS generation, and antioxidative strategies to reduce this OS. This study also suggests that antioxidant supplementation could be of clinical importance in prolonging the spermatozoal storage for assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs) like artificial insemination (AI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), and intrauterine insemination (IUI) purposes.

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  1. Department of Veterinary Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, 141004, India

    Amrit Kaur Bansal

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  1. Department of Biotechnology, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Vibha Rani

  2. School of Life Sciences, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

    Umesh Chand Singh Yadav

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Bansal, A.K. (2015). Antioxidants and Other Potent Strategies to Reduce Oxidative Stress in Semen. In: Rani, V., Yadav, U. (eds) Free Radicals in Human Health and Disease. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2035-0_24

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