Association between seminal plasma zinc level and asthenozoospermia: a meta-analysis study.

Zinc is proposed to have an important role in the morphology, viability and motility of spermatozoa. There are inconsistent reports on the association between seminal plasma zinc concentration and male infertility. For this purpose, papers reporting the level of seminal zinc among asthenozoospermic groups were selected and used for further analysis. This meta-analysis of previous published studies was performed to obtain more precise information on the association between seminal plasma zinc and asthenozoospermia. Relevant studies for inclusion were identified after preliminary investigation of research papers published on electronic databases up to February 2015. Eight reports and 475 subjects were finally included in the meta-analysis. In the overall analysis, a statistically significant reduction in seminal plasma zinc concentrations was observed in asthenozoospermic infertile men. Random-effects method was used to evaluate the summary effect size due to the presence of significant heterogeneity. The effect of zinc on asthenozoospermia was significant (Hedge's G effect size = -0.506, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): -0.998 to -0.014, P = 0.044). Taken together, despite of significant statistical heterogeneity between studies, our findings were indicative of significant association between zinc concentration and asthenozoospermia. In conclusion, the meta-analysis suggests that seminal plasma zinc concentration is negatively associated with male infertility.

DNA interaction with Al-N,N'-bis(salicylidene)2,2'-phenylendiamine complex.

The Al(III) complex, [Al(salophen)2H2O]NO3, was synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic (NMR and FT-IR) techniques. Then the binding of Schiff base complex of [Al(salophen)]+ type, where salophen denotes N,N'-bis(salicylidene) 2,2-phenylendiamine to calf thymus DNA, has been investigated by spectrophotometric, circular dichroism, spectrofluorometric, melting temperature and viscosimetric techniques. This Al(III) complex showed absorption hyperchromism in the range of 310-390 nm, increase in melting temperature, some structural changes in specific viscosity, when bound to calf thymus DNA. The binding constant has been determined using absorption measurement and found to be 1.82 x 10(3)M(-1) and 1.31 x 10(3)M(-1) in HEPES and Tris-HCl buffers, respectively. Also the fluorescence spectral characteristics and interaction of Al-salophen complex with DNA have been studied. Al-salophen bound to DNA showed a marked increase in the fluorescence intensity along with a bathochromic shift (5 nm). The intersection point of the binding isotherm indicated a binding site size of 12 bp per bound complex molecule in both HEPES and Tris-HCl buffers. The experimental results showed that the Al-salophen complex bound to DNA by non-intercalative mode and major groove binding was the preferred mode of interaction.