EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES IN MALE-INFERTILITY

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production from spermatozoa has been mea sured by chemiluminescence in the two fractions of a Percoll gradient column (47 and 90%), Chemiluminescent signals were recorded in each fr action after the addition of luminol and horse-radish peroxidase (basa l state), and after stimulation with formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylala nine and phorbol ester (PMA), Oligozoospermic samples show a higher ra te of ROS production than the normozoospermic samples in both fraction s of Percoll. Also, ROS were generated at a higher rate by asthenozoos permic samples in the 90% Percoll fraction than by normal samples afte r stimulation with PMA, Our data confirm the fact that white blood cel ls play a major role in the production of ROS, even after purification on a Percoll gradient, Immunological cases were also found to be asso ciated with an increased production of ROS, which may be caused by the same underlying pathological condition responsible for the production of the antibodies. Repeated centrifugation of the samples triggers a burst of ROS in excess of that produced after Percoll preparation. In addition, superoxide dismutase activity was found to be significantly increased in cases with an elevated production of ROS, It is concluded that measuring the ROS generation by semen may yield useful informati on on the functional capacity of spermatozoa, which may be used to imp rove the success of male infertility management.