The relationship between reactive oxygen species, DNA fragmentation, and sperm parameters in human sperm using simplified sucrose vitrification with or without triple antioxidant supplementation / 대한생식의학회지

ABSTRACT

Objective@#This study examined whether the addition of triple antioxidants (3A)—10 μM acetyl-L-carnitine, 10 μM N-acetyl-L-cysteine, and 5 μM α-lipoic acid—in freezing-thawing medium during human sperm cryopreservation using the sucrose vitrification (SuV) and liquid nitrogen vapor (Vapor) techniques could improve post-thaw survival of spermatozoa. @*Methods@#We analyzed 30 samples from healthy human sperm donors. Each sample was allocated into one of five groups fresh control, SuV, SuV+3A, Vapor, and Vapor+3A. The sperm motility, morphology, viability, intracellular and extracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) were evaluated. @*Results@#The cryopreserved spermatozoa had significantly reduced percentages of motility (p0.05). No significant differences were found in sperm morphology between the fresh and frozen-thawed groups (p>0.05). After freezing, the extracellular ROS levels in the frozen-thawed groups were significantly higher (p0.05). The SDF was higher in the SuV and Vapor groups than in the fresh group, but without statistical significance (p=0.075 and p=0.077, respectively). @*Conclusion@#Cryopreservation had detrimental effects on sperm motility, viability, and extracellular ROS levels, without changing the morphology or intracellular ROS levels. Antioxidant supplementation was slightly effective in preventing SDF in frozen-thawed spermatozoa.