Abstract
Seminal oxidative stress (OS) is one of the most promising factors to describe the causes of idiopathic male infertility. Redox balance is essential in several biological processes related to fertility, so alterations such as high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels or low antioxidant agent levels can compromise it. MiOXSYS has been developed to evaluate the seminal static oxidation-reduction potential (sORP) and it has been proposed as an effective diagnostic biomarker. However, its relationship with parameters like sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF), chromatin compaction status or seminal pH requires further analysis, making it the object of this study. Semen and sORP analysis were performed for all samples. A terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay (TUNEL) and Comet assay were used to assess SDF and chromomycin a3 (CMA3) test to assess sperm chromatin compaction. Regarding sORP measures, it was found that alkaline pH has an effect on sample reproducibility. To our knowledge, this unexpected effect has not been previously described. A statistical analysis showed that sORP correlated negatively with CMA3 positive cells and sperm motility, but not with SDF. As redox dysregulation, which occurs mainly at the testicular and epididymal level, causes chromatin compaction problems and leaves DNA exposed to damage, an excess of ROS could be counterbalanced further by a seminal supply of antioxidant molecules, explaining the negative correlation with CMA3 positive cells but no correlation with SDF. Our results show that the study of idiopathic infertility would benefit from a combined approach comprising OS analysis, SDF and chromatin compaction analysis.
Highlights
Male infertility is a multifactorial disorder that is present in approximately half of the population of infertile couples [1,2,3,4]
The aim of the present study is to evaluate the relevance of oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) in idiopathic male infertility
The tendency observed between sORP1–sORP2 differences and the pH value suggests that, together with seminal viscosity, pH might be affecting the reading outcome of the MiOXSYS system
Summary
Male infertility is a multifactorial disorder that is present in approximately half of the population of infertile couples [1,2,3,4]. About 15% of infertile men present normozoospermia and idiopathic causes, and so require an in-depth study to find a more accurate diagnosis [2,8]. A number of studies have shown that redox deregulation, either by an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) or a decrease in antioxidant activity, results in alterations in sperm motility, lipid peroxidation or sperm
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