Impaired seminal antioxidant capacity in human semen with hyperviscosity or oligoasthenozoospermia

Antioxidant capacity of seminal plasma was evaluated in 120 semen samples subdivided into asthenozoospermic and oligoasthenozoospermic specimens with normal consistency and into asthenozoospermic and oligoasthenozoospermic specimens with hyperviscosity. Semen samples (n = 25) from normozoospermic donors were used as a control group. Scavenger antioxidant capacity of reactive oxygen species was evaluated by superoxide dismutase and catalase activity measurements, whereas the chain-breaking antioxidant efficiency was detected by total antioxidant status assessment. In semen with normal viscosity, unaltered enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant capacity was revealed in the asthenozoospermic specimens, whereas low superoxide dismutase activity was detected in oligoasthenozoospermic samples. On the contrary, impairment of both the scavenger and chain-breaking antioxidative systems was revealed in asthenozoospermic and oligoasthenozoospermic hyperviscous ejaculates, regardless of sperm count. Catalase activity and total antioxidant status values were also reduced in the 2 subgroups of hyperviscous ejaculates compared with their respective matched controls, whereas similar superoxide dismutase activities were detected in oligoasthenozoospermic samples with normal and high consistencies. These results suggest that asthenozoospermia could be related to an antioxidant deficiency only in combined ejaculate pathologies, and that a severe impairment of the low and high molecular weight seminal antioxidative capacities could be associated with semen hyperviscosity.