Effects of L-carnitine and L-acetyl-carnitine on testicular sperm motility and chromatin quality

Sperm cells extracted from testes [TESE] have poor chromatin quality and motility. Various substances are used in the laboratory to increase sperm motility and improve the ART outcomes; however, there are few research which considered improving both sperm motility and chromatin quality. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the improvement of the testicular sperm motility and chromatin quality exposed to L-carnitine [LC] and L-acetyl-carnitine [LAC], which are normally concentrated in testis and epididymis, compared with Pentoxifylline [PF], which used for sperm motility enhancement in IVF procedures. TESE samples from 30 male mice divided into four parts. The sperm samples were added to Ham' F10 [control] or the media contained 1.76mM of LC, LAC or PF], then, the samples were kept in the room temperature for 30, 90 and 180 min. At each time step, sperm motility and chromatin quality were assessed. Chromatin quality was evaluated by chromomycin A3 and aniline blue. Statistical analysis was performed using one way analysis of variance [ANOVA]. A p-value less than 0.05 were accepted as a statistically significant difference. The results showed LC, LAC and PF significantly increased the sperm motility. However, sperm chromatin quality only improved significantly by administration of LC and LAC. Administration of LC and LAC to the testicular sperm samples can lead to improve both sperm motility and chromatin quality. It may be because they can mimic in vivo sperm condition during late spermatogenesis

Effects of sera taken from women with recurrent spontaneous abortion on sperm motility and apoptosis

Recurrent spontaneous abortion impacts almost 1% of couples. The sera from women with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion [URSA] have toxic effects on embryos that grow in the uterus. Therefore, the abnormal condition of the uterus may also affect sperm qualities. The objectives of this study were to search if these sera could induce DNA denaturation in sperm nuclei and also it could reduce sperm motility. Sera of 20 women with URSA history and sera from 20 women with at least two healthy children were added to the sperms samples from 20 healthy men for 2 hours. The sperm motility was assessed after incubation with sera. The samples were stained with Tdt mediated dUTP nick end labeling [TUNEL] assay for DNA fragmentation. The samples were analyzed with flow cytometry and the percentage of the TUNEL positive sperms were calculated. The data were analyzed by t-test. The incubation of the sperm samples in sera with URSA lead to a decrease in the percentage of the motile sperm from 55% in control to 41% in the treated group, significantly [p=0.038]. The percentage of the sperm with abnormal fragmented DNA increased after incubation with URSA [26.6%] compare to the control [21.2%]; however, it was not significant. It seems that sera from URSA patients could not induce a significant increase in the percentage of the sperms with nuclei contain DNA fragmentation. However, the sera of women with URSA could affect the fertility rate by reduction of the sperm motility