dietary vitamin e is more effective than omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid for improving the kinematic characteristics of rat sperm

objective: although key roles for dietary vitamin e (vite) and fatty acid (fa) in fertility have been confirmed, limited data are available on the effects of vite alone, or a constant level of vite supplemented by dietary omega-6 and omega-3 fas in combination on male reproduction. consequently in this paper, the effects of vite, sunflower oil, fish oil and their combination on rat sperm were investigated. materials and methods: we divided 50 mature male wistar rats into 5 groups (n=10) in a experimental completely randomized design for eight weeks: i. control (ctr): standard diet; ii. vitamin e diet (vite): 2 times greater than recommendations; iii. sunflower oil group (n-6) [gavaged with 0.5 ml/day/rat sunflower oil+vite diet]; iv. fish oil group (n-3): [gavaged with 0.5 ml/day/rat fish oil+vite diet] and v. n-3+n-6 group [gavaged with 0.3 ml fish oil/day/rat+0.2 ml sunflower oil/day/rat+vite diet]. the sperm parameters were measured by computer assisted semen analyzer (casa). all data were analyzed with spss software. results: feed intake decreased in groups which were administered sunflower oil compared with the other groups (p<0.05). the groups which received only vite or fish oil+vite had a significantly higher concentration of sperm compared with the n- 6+n-3 and ctr group (p<0.05). vite and n-3 showed significant improved progressive motility compared to the ctr group, whereas the n-6 and n-6+n-3 groups were in the middle (p<0.05). the highest sperm kinematic parameters were observed in the vite only group. there was no strong correlation between sperm parameters and blood lipid profiles. conclusion: dietary vite and fish oil+vite can improve sperm quality. our findings can be a focus for improvements in sperm quantity and motility in fertile animals using only dietary vite.