ROLE OF ANTIOXIDANTS IN THE DIMINUTION OF OXIDATIVE STRESS AND AMELIORATION OF SEMEN PARAMETERS IN IDIOPATHIC MALE INFERTILITY

Vegim Zhaku, Sheqibe Beadini, Nexhbedin Beadini, Vjosa Xhaferi

Abstract

Antioxidants improve semen parameters in terms of concentration and motility, thus we decided to study their efficacy in men with idiopathic infertility. We enrolled 37 men undergoing idiopathic male infertility. The first semen sample was collected at the time of enrollment in the study. From this 0.5 ml of the sample was for standard semen analysis, 1.2 ml of the sample was for the separation of seminal plasma to evaluate oxidative stress (OS) parameters such as malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyl (PC). A second sample was collected after 6 months of antioxidant treatment. Mean, standard deviation, the Pearson correlation, and paired student t-test were used for statistical analyses. After six months of treatment, the mean sperm concentration before treatment was 13.84, after treatment 20.38, mean ±SD =-6.54 ±5.35. The mean of sperm motility before treatment was 27.16, after treatment 34.05, mean ± SD = -6.89 ± 11.72. Concentration and motility were significantly increased after 6 months of treatment (p<0.001). The mean level of MDA before treatment was 5.172, mean after treatment 3.968, mean ± SD = 1.204 ± 2.26. This shows significantly lower values after six months of therapy with antioxidants (p<0.001). Another oxidative marker denoted as PC was also lower after the treatment, but was not statistically significant (p=0.0554). We suggest that Antioxidants should be used on a routine basis in cases of idiopathic male infertility.

Pages: 69 - 80