CORRELATION OF SPERM MOTILITY WITH MITOCHONDRIAL ENZYMATIC-ACTIVITIES

Until now little attention has been paid to the contribution of mitoch ondrial dysfunction to germinal tissue disorders. The target of this s tudy was to investigate the relationship between sperm motility and mi tochondrial respiratory chain enzyme activities. The results obtained showed that semen samples of control individuals (n = 33) have substan tially higher activities of complexes I, II, and IV compared with thos e of asthenozoospermic subjects (n = 86). Moreover, a direct and posit ive correlation was found in the whole population studied between sper matozoa motility and all the mitochondrial respiratory complex activit ies assayed (I, II, I+III, II+III, and TV). The ratio of these enzymes to citrate synthase (a reliable enzymatic marker of mitochondrial vol ume) activities did not correlate with sperm motility. This suggests t hat motility depends largely on the mitochondrial volume within the sp erm midpiece. These observations could be of physiopathological releva nce because they suggest that factors affecting the mitochondrial ener gy production could be then responsible for particular cases of idiopa thic asthenozoospermia.