background: there is growing evidence that damage to spermatozoa by reactive oxygen species (ros) play a key role in male infertility. objective: the aim of the present study was to assess the antioxidant status of seminal plasma by measuring total antioxidant capacity (tac) and activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase (sod) in men with asthenozoospermia, asthenoteratozoospermia and olig...

BACKGROUND Semen analysis is the cornerstone in the evaluation of male (in)fertility. However, there are men with normal semen tests but with impaired fertilizing ability, as well as fertile men with poor sperm characteristics. Thus, there is rising interest to find novel parameters that will help to predict and define the functional capacity of spermatozoa. METHODS We examined whether there ...

BACKGROUND Previously, we documented the presence of ovulation-inducing factor (OIF) in the seminal plasma of llamas and alpacas. The purpose of the study was to define the biochemical characteristics of the molecule(s) in seminal plasma responsible for inducing ovulation. METHODS In Experiment 1, llama seminal plasma was centrifuged using filtration devices with nominal molecular mass cut-of...

A major secretory protein of the human epididymis that is taken up by maturing spermatozoa is homologous to the leukocyte antigen CD52. The epididymis was shown to be the sole source of CD52 in seminal fluid, since CD52 could be detected in seminal plasma from sperm-containing ejaculates and not in ejaculates of vasectomized patients by Western blot analysis. The glycoprotein is not expressed i...

BACKGROUND Prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) has been shown to modulate angiogenesis and tumour progression via the E-series prostanoid-2 (EP2) receptor. Endometrial adenocarcinomas may be exposed to endogenous PGE(2) and exogenous PGE(2), present at high concentration in seminal plasma. METHODS This study investigated fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) mRNA expression and cell signalling in respons...

BACKGROUND Zinc in human seminal plasma is divided into three types of ligands which are high (HMW), intermediate (IMW), and low molecular weight ligands (LMW). The present study was aimed to study the effect of Zn supplementation on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of semen along with Zinc Binding Protein levels in the seminal plasma in asthenozoospermic patients. METHODS Sem...

Two experiments were designed to examine the effects of crude seminal plasma (CSP) exposure ofejaculated and epididymal spermatozoa before freezing. Experiment 1, two consecutive ejaculates werecollected (n=4) within 5 min, the second one was carried out in a tube containing Fiser extender (coatedspermatozoa); by centrifugation, seminal plasma was removed from coated ejaculates. The pellets wer...

background: the lipid peroxides and their degradation products are highly toxic to spermatozoa and may play a major role in sperm dysfunction. the purpose of this study was to determine the level of lipid peroxidation as indicated by malondialdehyde (mda) in the spermatozoa and seminal plasma of asthenozoospermic and normozoospermic males. in addition, correlation of lipid peroxidation with mot...