Elsevier

Fertility and Sterility

Volume 80, Issue 6, December 2003, Pages 1431-1436
Fertility and Sterility

Male factor
Evaluation of nuclear DNA damage in spermatozoa from infertile men with varicocele

Presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Seattle, Washington, October 12–17, 2002.
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Abstract

Objective

To examine levels of sperm DNA damage and oxidative stress (OS) in infertile men with varicocele.

Design

Prospective controlled study.

Setting

Male infertility clinic, Glickman Urological Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio.

Patient(s)

Thirty-one infertility patients and 16 fertile controls.

Intervention(s)

Sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI), levels of seminal reactive oxygen species (ROS), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were assessed using the sperm chromatin structure assay, chemiluminescence assay, and enhanced chemiluminescence assay, respectively. ROS-TAC score was calculated as a measure of OS.

Main outcome measure(s)

Median (interquartile range) DFI and ROS-TAC scores.

Result(s)

Sixteen of the 31 patients had left varicocele [grade I (n = 3), grade II (n = 10), and grade III(n = 3)], and the remaining 15 had normal genital examination. Patients with varicoceles had significantly higher percent DFI than controls (25%, range: 20%–35%; vs. 15%, range: 10%–22%). Patients with varicoceles had significantly lower ROS-TAC scores (21, range: 9.5–31) than the infertile patients with normal genital examination (34, range: 28–42) or the controls (40.3, range: 38–44).

Conclusion(s)

Infertile men with varicoceles showed significantly increased spermatozoal DNA damage that appears to be related to high levels of OS in semen.

Keywords

Male infertility
nuclear DNA
oxidative stress
spermatozoa
varicocele

Cited by (0)

Research support was provided by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.