Asscorbic acid portects against male infertility in a teleost fish

Abstract

An animal unable to synthesize ascorbic acid uniquely minicks human and non-human primates. Therefore, in this study we used the rainbow trout, a teleost fish, as the model animal to study the importance of dietary ascorbic acid on the fertilizing ability of sperm. A high concentration of ascorbic acid in semen plays a key role in maintaining the genetic integrity of sperm cells, by preventing oxidative damage to sperm DNA. This study will show that the concentration of asorbic acid in seminal plasma refelcts the dietary fed either an ascorbate-free diet (from 4.74±0.9 to 0.16±0.08 μg ml⁻¹) or an ascorbate-rich diet (from 37.9±4.7 to 17.7± 3.2 μg ml⁻¹) during the sperimnation season. The relationship between ascrobate status and fertility was studied in six groups of fish fed graded levels of ascorbic acid, which sperimated over a 150-day-period. Sperm from individual males was used to fertilize several batches of eggs. When the seminal plasma ascorbate concentration decreased to 7.3 μg ml⁻¹ a significant decrease of fertilization rate and the hatching rate of embryos resulted. This is the first evidence that dietary ascorbate level directly affected sperm quality and influenced male fertility in a scruvy-prone vertebrate.