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Men with epilepsy are known to have reduced fertility. Whether this is drug-induced or a result of the epilepsy itself is still under debate. Few studies have been carried out on semen from men with epilepsy. The aim of the present study was first to investigate possible drug-specific effects of long-term treatment with either valproate or carbamazepine on semen quality and testicular size, and secondly to see whether the results in epilepsy patients differed from healthy fertile males. Men with epilepsy, 20–40 years old, having used either valproate (n = 16) or carbamazepine (n = 20) for >2 years, were included. The semen data of healthy fertile men without epilepsy in the same age group (n = 90) were used as controls. The semen was examined according to WHO (1999). No significant differences in semen quality were seen between men receiving either valproate or carbamazepine. However, semen from the valproate-treated, as opposed to the carbamazepine-treated, differed from controls with regard to tail abnormalities. Absolute testicular size was not significantly different between the two treatment groups. However, after correcting for changes in body mass index (BMI), the testicular size/BMI ratio was lower in the valproate-treated patients. The valproate-treated patients gained significantly more weight than the carbamazepine-treated patients after start of current medication. No differences between the patient groups were found in terms of libido/potency or number of pregnancies fathered. When comparing all epilepsy patients with healthy fertile males, there was a significant reduction in the percentage of rapidly progressive motile sperms in the semen from epileptic patients. The semen from men with epilepsy also showed significant differences from the controls regarding neck and head abnormalities of the spermatozoa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about the regulation of sperm motility, which is an important predictor of male fertility. However, both testicular and post-testicular factors may be involved, although the impact of the latter has been relatively poorly investigated.Methods: In semen samples from 301 young men from the general Swedish population (mean +/- SD age 18.2 +/- 0.4 years), we assessed sperm motility by use of a manual method as well as computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) and correlated these values to seminal levels of neutral alpha-glucosidase (NAG), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), zinc and fructose.Results: There were significant positive correlations between seminal levels of NAG, and PSA and CASA percentage motile sperm (r = 0.158, P = 0.009; r = 0.155, P = 0.01 respectively), and significant negative correlations with CASA percentage immotile sperm (r = -0.206, P = 0.001; r = -0.157, P = 0.009 respectively). In a multiple regression analysis it was found that, apart from sperm concentration, the level of PSA was the most significant and independent parameter in predicting percentage motile sperm (beta = 0.220, P = 0.037).Conclusion: Our study demonstrated the regulatory effect of post-testicular glands on the motility of sperm. This is to our knowledge the first study showing a direct correlation between the seminal PSA levels and sperm motility in a group of men representing the general population. In future investigations and searches for specific treatment modalities in male infertility, more attention should be paid to the epididymis and accessory sex gland function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When ejaculated sperm travels through the vagina to the uterus, mucus secreted by the cervical canal generally filters out sperm having low motility and poor morphology. To investigate this selection principle in vivo, we developed a microfluidic sperm-sorting chip with a viscous medium (polyvinylpyrrolidone: PVP) to imitate the biophysical environment mimic system of the human cervical canal. The material property of the PVP solution was tuned to the range of viscosities of cervical mucus using micro-viscometry. The selection of high-quality human sperm was experimentally evaluated in vitro and theoretically analyzed by the convection-diffusion mechanism. The convection flow is shown to be dominant at low viscosity of the medium used in the sperm-sorting chip when seeded with raw semen; hence, the raw semen containing sperm and debris convectively flow together with suppressed relative dispersions. Also, it was observed that the sperm selected via the chip not only had high motilities but also normal morphologies and high DNA integrity. Therefore, the biomimetic sperm-sorting chip with PVP medium is expected to improve male fertility by enabling the selection of high-quality sperm as well as uncovering pathways and regulatory mechanisms involved in sperm transport through the female reproductive tract for egg fertilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the impact of some of the common laboratory interventions on the hypoosmotic swelling (HOS) responses of human-spermatozoa. HOS test for investigating the functional integrity and viability of human sperm; Occurrence in the laboratory-processed sperm of all seven types of HOS responses documented in fresh semen; Various types of swelling.

Reduction of the blue dye resazurin to pink resorufin is used to estimate the concentration of metabolically active spermatozoa in semen samples. In order to quantify the reduction of resazurin, a spectrophotometric method was developed measuring the change from blue to pink in the butanol extracted colour. The biochemical mechanisms involved in the reduction of resazurin by motile spermatozoa and seminal plasma were investigated. Addition of NADH + H+ to sperm suspension or seminal plasma increased the reduction of resazurin. The reduction reaction was inhibited by high concentrations of dicoumarol, a specific inhibitor of the diaphorase enzyme, in a dose-dependent manner. It is suggested that the sperm diaphorase enzyme transfers electrons from NADH + H+ to resazurin, reducing it to resorufin. The degree of resazurin reduction was strongly correlated with the concentration of motile spermatozoa recovered from the 90% Percoll fraction (r = 0.98, p < 0.001). A positive correlation was also found between the reducing capacity of seminal plasma (n = 62) on the one hand, and sperm concentration (r = 0.72, p < 0.0001), progressive motility (r = 0.45, p < 0.01), normal morphology (r = 0.50, p < 0.01), and γ-glutamyltransferase (r = 0.36, p < 0.05) on the other hand. These findings, together with our previous observations that the reduction reaction is inhibited by reactive oxygen species and polymorphonuclear white blood cells, increase our understanding of the biochemical basis of the resazurin test and may provide better insight into the interpretation of this test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the presence of pentoxifylline, spermatozoa can be induced to increase certain motion characteristics. This drug capability has been used to study the effect when applied directly on semen. An equal volume of pentoxifylline was added to semen, which was then incubated for 1 h before processing. Sperm motion was assessed employing computer-assisted semen analysis. The results showed that pentoxifylline increased curvilinear velocity, straight line velocity and lateral head displacement, the latter effect being concentration-dependent over the entire range of concentrations tested ( = 0.93, < 0.0001). With a high concentration of pentoxifylline, spermatozoa exhibited characteristics consistent with hyperactive-like motion. Semen characteristics showed marked inter-individual variation, ranging from 0 to >40% response to 6 mM pentoxifylline challenge. Some 10% of patients showed little or no response to pentoxifylline. The sum of the percentage changes in curvilinear and straight line velocity, lateral head displacement and manual sperm count for each dose group was used to produce the stimulation index, measuring the overall response of spermatozoa to the drug. This stimulation index showed that the most effective concentration was 6 mM pentoxifylline, considerably higher than the 3.6 mM pentoxifylline used commonly for separated spermatozoa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Current semen analysis still commonly depends on a manual microscopy method in clinical laboratories worldwide. However, some of the major disadvantages of this technique are that it is labour‐intensive, subjective, laboratory‐based and time‐consuming. Although computer‐assisted semen analysers (CASAs) have enabled partial automation of routine semen analysis, they lack wider acceptance due to their complicated operation. Therefore, the development of an accessible, rapid and standardised method for semen analysis is urgently needed. Here, we describe the development and clinical testing of a novel, automated, artificial intelligence optical microscopic (AIOM)‐based technology, LensHooke™ X1 PRO (X1 PRO), designed for the quantitative measurement of sperm concentration, motility and seminal pH. We observed high degree of correlation in the results of concentration, progressive motility and progressively motile sperm concentration between the X1 PRO semen analyser and manual method using 135 clinical semen samples. In addition, the seminal pH results obtained by X1 PRO and manual methods were comparable (p = .12). In summary, our results showed that new X1 PRO semen analyser is a reliable diagnostic tool for routine semen analysis providing clinically acceptable results based on World Health Organization (WHO) 5th Edition guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study was to compare the water test and the hypoosmotic test (HOS) in the assessment of the human sperm membrane. A total of 686 semen samples from human male donors were subjected to water and HOS tests after routine semen evaluation. The mean percentage of swollen spermatozoa was 71.8±9.6% in the HOS test and 67.8±9.4% for the water test; these values were not statistically different. The correlation of coefficients between the water test and the HOS test was highly significant whether the values for the HOS test were higher or lower than 60% (P<0.001). A poor correlation was obtained when the two tests were compared for sperm counts either higher or lower than 20 × 6 ml-1 and when the results for both tests were compared with the percentage of eosin-Y staining spermatozoa. A poor correlation was also obtained when the results of each test were compared with eosin-Y staining spermatozoa in normal and abnormal semen samples. The coefficient of regression between the two tests showed a high correlation (P<0.001). In conclusion, even though a high correlation between the HOS test and water test was observed in this study, it is not possible to recommend assessment of sperm membrane integrity using the water test and the consequent replacement of the HOS test in routine practice. Further studies are necessary to establish the best test for sperm vitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Semen is the major vehicle for HIV-1 infection as it contains free and cell-associated virions and infected cells. However, the presence of HIV-1 in spermatozoa has been a matter of debate, since the sperm cell fraction may contain somatic infected cells that jeopardize the attribution of the detected virus to the spermatozoa. METHODS Spermatozoa from 12 HIV-1 seropositive subjects were purified by multilayered Percoll gradient followed by osmotic shock. Residual presence of non-seminal cells (NCS) in purified spermatozoa, was then evaluated by cytometric and molecular analysis. HIV-1 DNA was revealed by nested PCR and in situ PCR after sperm chromatin decondensation. DNA-fragmented ejaculated spermatozoa in semen of infected subjects were detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUDP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) analysis. RESULTS Purification procedure adopted allowed complete removal of NCS. On purified sperm cells, HIV-1 DNA was detected in 5 out of 12 subjects by nested-PCR. On crude semen of 10 out of 12 subjects, HIV-1 DNA was in situ detected in a small percentage of abnormal spermatozoa with a wide range of structural alterations. TUNEL analysis revealed an increased percentage of DNA-fragmented ejaculated spermatozoa in semen of infected subjects. CONCLUSIONS We report molecular evidence demonstrating that HIV-1 infected subjects can ejaculate small amounts of HIV-1 DNA-positive abnormal spermatozoa. Their possible role in HIV-1 sexual transmission remains to be clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]