The effects of combined conventional treatment, oral antioxidants and essential fatty acids on sperm biology in subfertile men

We evaluated the effects of combined conventional treatment, oral antioxida nts (N-acetyl-cysteine or vitamins A plus E) and essential fatty acids (FA) on sperm biology in an open prospective study including 27 infertile men. The evaluation included sperm characteristics, seminal reactive oxygen spec ies (ROS), FA of sperm membrane phospholipids, sperm oxidized DNA (8-OH-dG) , and induced acrosome reaction (AR). Treatment did not improve sperm motil ity and morphology, nor decrease the concentration of round cells and white blood cells in semen. Sperm concentration increased in oligozoospermic men (7.4 +/- 1.3 to 12.5 +/- 1.9 million/ml). Treatment significantily reduced ROS (mean +/- SEM) (775.3 +/- 372.2 to 150.3 +/- 105.2 x 10(3) counts/10 s econd) and 8-OH-dG (45.3 +/- 10.4 to 16.8 +/- 3.3 fmol/mug DNA). Treatment increased the AR (551 +/- 2.2 to 71.6 +/- 2.2 %), the proportion of polyuns aturated FA of the phospholipids, and sperm membrane fluidity. The overall pregnancy rate was 4.5% in 134 months. The per month pregnancy rate tended to be higher in partners of (ex)smokers (7.15%, n = 14, 70 months) than in never-smokers (1.6%, n = 13, 64 months) (OR:4.57, 95% Cl:0.55-38.1). (C) 20 00 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.