Abstract
The most common cause of male infertility is idiopathic. Standard investigations reveal no abnormality in such cases. The aim of the study was to investigate the levels of sperm DNA damage and seminal oxidative stress and their relationships with idiopathic infertility. The study included 30 normozoospermic infertile men seeking infertility treatment and 20 fertile donors. Semen analysis was performed according to the World Health Organization guidelines. Sperm DNA damage was assessed by alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay) after preparation with two-step discontinuous Percoll gradient. Seminal oxidative stress was measured by a novel automated method. DNA damage score, total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS) and oxidative stress index (OSI) were not different in idiopathic infertile men compared with controls. No correlations were also found between DNA damage score and TAS, TOS levels and OSI in idiopathic infertile group. We did not find any relationship between sperm DNA damage and oxidative stress in normozoospermic infertile men. We think that the pathophysiology of idiopathic infertility cannot be explained by sperm DNA damage or seminal oxidative stress.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agarwal A, Allamaneni SS (2005) Sperm DNA damage assessment: a test whose time has come. Fertil Steril 84:850–853
Aitken RJ, Fisher HM, Fulton N, Gomez E, Knox W, Lewis B, Irvine S (1997) Reactive oxygen species generation by human spermatozoa is induced by exogenous NADPH and inhibited by the flavoprotein inhibitors diphenyl iodonium and quinacrine. Mol Reprod Dev 47:468–482
Aitken RJ (1999) The human spermatozoa—a cell in crisis? J Reprod Fertil 115:1–7
Aycicek A, Erel O, Kocyigit A (2005) Increased oxidative stress in infants exposed to passive smoking. Eur J Pediatr 164:775–778
Barroso G, Morshedi M, Oehninger S (2000) Analysis of DNA fragmentation, plasma membrane translocation of phosphatidylserine and oxidative stress in human spermatozoa. Hum Reprod 15:1338–1344
Demirbag R, Yilmaz R, Erel O, Gultekin U, Asci D, Elbasan Z (2005) The relationship between potency of oxidative stress and severity of dilated cardiomyopathy. Can J Cardiol 21:851–855
Erel O (2004) A novel automated direct measurement method for total antioxidant capacity using a new generation, more stable ABTS radical cation. Clin Biochem 37:277–285
Erel O (2005) A new automated colorimetric method for measuring total oxidant status. Clin Biochem 38:1103–1111
Evenson DP, Jost LK, Marshall D, Zinaman MJ, Clegg E, Purvis K, de Angelis P, Claussen OP (1999) Utility of the sperm chromatin structure assay as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in the human fertility clinic. Hum Reprod 14:1039–1049
Gil-Guzman E, Ollero M, Lopez MC, Sharma RK, Alvarez JG, Thomas AJ Jr, Agarwal A (2001) Differential production of reactive oxygen species by subsets of human spermatozoa at different stages of maturation. Hum Reprod 16:1922–1930
Gupta NP, Kumar R (2002) Lycopene therapy in idiopathic male infertility—a preliminary report. Int Urol Nephrol 34:369–372
Harma M, Harma M, Erel O (2005) Measurement of the total antioxidant response in preeclampsia with a novel automated method. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 118:47–51
Hughes CM, Lewis SE, McKelvey-Martin VJ, Thompson W (1996) A comparison of baseline and induced DNA damage in human spermatozoa from fertile and infertile men, using a modified comet assay. Mol Hum Reprod 2:613–619
Irvine DS, Twigg JP, Gordon EL, Fulton N, Milne PA, Aitken RJ (2000) DNA integrity in human spermatozoa: relationships with semen quality. J Androl 21:33–44
Kruger TF, Menkveld R, Stander FS, Lombard CJ, Van der Merwe JP, van Zyl JA, Smith K (1986) Sperm morphologic features as a prognostic factor in in vitro fertilization. Fertil Steril 46:1118–1123
McVicar CM, McClure N, Williamson K, Dalzell LH, Lewis SE (2004) Incidence of Fas positivity and deoxyribonucleic acid double-stranded breaks in human ejaculated sperm. Fertil Steril 81:767–774
Morris ID, Ilott S, Dixon L, Brison DR (2002) The spectrum of DNA damage in human sperm assessed by single cell gel electrophoresis (Comet assay) and its relationship to fertilization and embryo development. Hum Reprod 17:990–998
Moustafa MH, Sharma RK, Thornton J, Mascha E, Abdel-Hafez MA, Thomas AJ Jr, Agarwal A (2004) Relationship between ROS production, apoptosis and DNA denaturation in spermatozoa from patients examined for infertility. Hum Reprod 19:129–138
Pasqualotto FF, Sharma RK, Nelson DR, Thomas AJ, Agarwal A (2000) Relationship between oxidative stress, semen characteristics, and clinical diagnosis in men undergoing infertility investigation. Fertil Steril 73:459–464
Pasqualotto FF, Sharma RK, Kobayashi H, Nelson DR, Thomas AJ, Agarwal A (2001) Oxidative stress in normospermic men undergoing infertility evaluation. J Androl 22:316–322
Rajesh KT, Doreswamy K, Shrilatha B, Muralidhara M (2002) Oxidative stress associated DNA damage in testis of mice: induction of abnormal sperms and effects on fertility. Mutat Res 513:103–111
Raman RS, Chan PJ, Corselli JU, Patton WC, Jacobson JD, Chan SR, King A (2001) Comet assay of cumulus cell DNA status and the relationship to oocyte fertilization via intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Hum Reprod 16:831–835
Sakkas D, Manicardi GC, Tomlinson M, Mandrioli M, Bizzaro D, Bianchi PG, Bianchi U (2000) The use of two density gradient centrifugation techniques and the swim-up method to separate spermatozoa with chromatin and nuclear DNA anomalies. Hum Reprod 15:1112–1116
Saleh RA, Agarwal A, Nelson DR, Nada EA, El-Tonsy MH, Alvarez JG, Thomas AJ Jr, Sharma RK (2002) Increased sperm nuclear DNA damage in normozoospermic infertile men: a prospective study. Fertil Steril 78:313–318
Saleh RA, Agarwal A, Nada EA, El-Tonsy MH, Sharma RK, Meyer A, Nelson DR, Thomas AJ (2003) Negative effects of increased sperm DNA damage in relation to seminal oxidative stress in men with idiopathic and male factor infertility. Fertil Steril 79:1597–1605
Sharma RK, Pasqualotto FF, Nelson DR, Thomas AJ Jr, Agarwal A (1999) The reactive oxygen species–total antioxidant capacity score is a new measure of oxidative stress to predict male infertility. Hum Reprod 14:2801–2807
Shen HM, Chia SE, Ong CN (1999) Evaluation of oxidative DNA damage in human sperm and its association with male infertility. J Androl 20:718–723
Sikka SC (2004) Role of oxidative stress and antioxidants in andrology and assisted reproductive technology. J Androl 25:5–18
Smith R, Vantman D, Ponce J, Escobar J, Lissi E (1996) Total antioxidant capacity of human seminal plasma. Hum Reprod 11:1655–1660
Tomlinson MJ, Moffatt O, Manicardi GC, Bizzaro D, Afnan M, Sakkas D (2001) Interrelationships between seminal parameters and sperm nuclear DNA damage before and after density gradient centrifugation: implications for assisted conception. Hum Reprod 16:2160–2165
Twigg J, Fulton N, Gomez E, Irvine DS, Aitken RJ (1998) Analysis of the impact of intracellular reactive oxygen species generation on the structural and functional integrity of human spermatozoa: lipid peroxidation, DNA fragmentation and effectiveness of antioxidants. Hum Reprod 13:1429–1436
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Verit, F.F., Verit, A., Kocyigit, A. et al. No increase in sperm DNA damage and seminal oxidative stress in patients with idiopathic infertility. Arch Gynecol Obstet 274, 339–344 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-006-0172-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-006-0172-9