ABSTRACT
Semen hyperviscosity [SHV] is one of the factors involved in deficiency in sperm function. This research aimed to evaluate seminal plasma total antioxidant capacity [TAC] and malondialdehyde [MDA] levels in infertile patients with hyperviscous and non-hyperviscous semen samples to understand whether hyperviscous semen is associated with oxidative damage in infertile subjects. In this cross sectional study, 59 semen samples were provided by fertile [n=12] individuals as control, infertile patients with normal viscosity [n=25] and infertile patients with hyperviscosity [n=22]. After semen parameters examination, semen viscosity was studied by glass pipettes. Seminal plasma TAC and MDA levels were measured by ferric reducing of antioxidant power [FRAP] and thiobarbituric acid reaction [TBAR] methods, respectively. A probability less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant throughout the article. The mean of sperm parameters including: counts, motility and normal morphology in patients with hyperviscosity were significantly lower than those in non-hyperviscosity patients [p<0.05, p<0.01 and p<0.001, respectively]. The mean of seminal plasma TAC value in seminal plasma of non-hyperviscosity patients [1710.31 +/- 458.67 micro mol/l] was significantly [p<0.01] higher than that of hyperviscosity group [1230.25 +/- 352 micro mol/l]. A trend toward a higher mean of seminal plasma MDA value was estimated for hyperviscous group compared with non-hyperviscous [1.01 +/- 0.41 nmol/ml vs. 0.94 +/- 0.28 nmol/l]; however, it was nonsignificant. Hyperviscous semen impairs seminal plasma TAC which is eventually associated with sperm membrane lipid peroxidation