Background: Analysis of sperm morphology defects (amorphous heads, abnormal acrosome, etc.) is useful for estimating the efficiency spermiogenesis and maturation. An advanced paternal age (more than 40 years) associated with decreasing count reduced motility; however, there little information on effect aging relating to morphological defects. Moreover, searching stable combinations certain in s...

This study of male reproductive health in the Czech Republic resulted from community concern about potential adverse effects of air pollution. We compared young men (18 years of age) living in Teplice, a highly industrialized district with seasonally elevated levels of air pollution, to those from Prachatice, a rural district with relatively clean air. Surveys were scheduled for either late win...

Evaluation of the quality of cryopreserved bull spermatozoa is reviewed. The methods for the assessment of sperm quality have markedly improved over the last decades – starting with the assessment of morphological shapes and subjective motility analysis towards the more sophisticated analysis of the molecular changes in chromatin, membranes and catabolic activities of the sperm cell itself. Fun...

Background: Obesity is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide, with increasing prevalence in adults and children. Some studies have shown that increased body mass index is related to poor semen quality, decreased sperm concentration, decreased normal-motile sperm cells and increased DNA fragmentation index. Lipid peroxidation contributes to the damage of the sperm plasma membrane. Cinna...

PURPOSE To investigate whether the sperm concentration of European men is deteriorating over the past 50 years of time. MATERIALS AND METHODS We analysed the data published in English language articles in the past 50 years in altering sperm concentration in European men. RESULTS A time-dependent decline of sperm concentration ( r = -0.307, p = 0.02) in the last 50 years and an overall 32.5%...

The objective was to monitor sperm counts and bacterial presence on randomly pooled semen doses over 3y and to determine effects on the farrowing rate and total born in two large farm systems, each serviced by their own boar stud. Sperm counts were divided into increments of 0.5x10(9) for data analysis. There was no effect of sperm count or the presence of bacteria on farrowing rate (n=9502 obs...

Background To evaluate predictive factors of successful microdissection-testicular sperm extraction (MD-TESE) in patients with presumed Sertoli cell-only syndrome (SCOS). MaterialsAndMethods In this retrospective analysis, 874 men with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), among whom 148 individuals with diagnosis of SCOS in prior biopsy, underwent MD-TESE at Department of Andrology, Royan Institu...

Background: This study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effects of simultaneous formaldehyde (FA) and noise exposure on the sperm kinematic parameters sexual hormones in male mice. Materials and Methods: Forty eight NMRI adult male mice were randomly assigned to control group and experimental groups which were exposed to formaldehyde vapour (10 ppm) (F), noise (100 dB) (N), and simultaneous ...

Sperm must undergo a process termed capacitation in the female reproductive tract before they are capable of fertilization. Previous studies strongly suggest that capacitation of sperm occurs in the oviduct. The secreted extracellular matrix phosphoprotein osteopontin (OPN) has been positively correlated to fertility in Holstein bull seminal plasma and identified in the bovine oviduct, where we...

To gain fertilizing capacity, mammalian sperm should reside in the female tract for a period of time. The physiological changes that render the sperm able to fertilize are known as capacitation. Capacitation is associated with an increase in intracellular pH, an increase in intracellular calcium, and phosphorylation of different proteins. This process is also accompanied by the hyperpolarizatio...