TOTAL ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY OF SEMINAL PLASMA IS DIFFERENT IN FERTILE AND INFERTILE MEN

Objective: To determine if the total antioxidant capacity of seminal plasma is different in fertile and infertile men. Design: An enhanced chemiluminescence assay applied to seminal plasma from groups of fertile and infertile men. Setting: The Assisted Conception Unit, Royal Maternity Hospital, Belfast. Subjects: Men of proven fertility whose partners had an ongoing pregnancy resulting from IVF and male partners of couples attending our subfertility clinic. Results: Total antioxidant capacity was significantly higher in seminal plasma from fertile men than from that of infertile men with normozoospermic samples that exhibited reactive oxygen species or asthenozoospermic samples with or without reactive oxygen species activity. Conclusions: Seminal plasma from infertile men has lower antioxidant levels than that of fertile men, particularly of patients whose semen have poor sperm motility. The presence of reactive oxygen species activity in sperm of infertile groups also is associated with lower levels of chain-breaking antioxidants in seminal plasma.