D. Vezina et al., SELENIUM-VITAMIN-E SUPPLEMENTATION IN INFERTILE MEN - EFFECTS ON SEMEN PARAMETERS AND MICRONUTRIENT LEVELS AND DISTRIBUTION, Biological trace element research, 53(1-3), 1996, pp. 65-83
In order to verify the hypothesis that selenium (Se) and vitamin E (Vi
t E) could improve male fertility, nine oligoasthenoteratozoospermic m
en were supplemented for a period of 6 mo with Se and Vit E. Compared
to the baseline period (presupplementation) of 4 mo, statistically sig
nificant increases were observed for Se and Vit E levels, sperm motili
ty, percent live, and percent normal spermatozoa. These improvements a
re likely to be ''supplementation-dependent,'' since all of the parame
ters returned to baseline values during the posttreatment period. None
of the couples reported a pregnancy during the study. The HPLC analys
is conducted on the serum of one of the patients showed the existence
of at least six different Se-containing peaks, whose Se content was af
fected by supplementation. The mechanism(s) involved in these improvem
ents of semen parameters is presently under investigation.