Antioxidant enzyme profile and lipid peroxidation products in semen samples of testicular germ cell tumor patients submitted to orchiectomy

Abstract

Purpose To determine enzymatic antioxidant and lipid peroxidation levels in seminal plasma of patients orchiectomized for testicular tumors.Materials and Methods The study included 52 patients: 26 control men and 26 orchiectomized patients for testicular tumor, of which 12 men had seminoma tumor and 14 men non-seminoma tumor. After semen analysis performed according to the WHO guidelines, an aliquot of semen was centrifuged and the seminal plasma was collected. Lipid peroxidation was performed by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assay and antioxidant profile was assessed by analyzing catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and superoxide anion (SOD) activities using colorimetric assays with a standard spectrophotometer. Data were tested for normality and compared using one-way ANOVA (p<0.05).Results Seminoma and non-seminoma groups presented lower sperm concentration and morphology when compared to control group (p=0.0001). Both study groups (seminoma and non-seminoma) presented higher TBARS levels when compared to control group (p=0.0000013). No differences were observed for SOD (p=0.646) andGPx (p=0.328). It was not possible to access the enzymatic activity of catalase in any group.Conclusion Patients with testicular tumor present increased semen oxidative stress, but no differences were observed in antioxidant levels, even after orchiectomy. This indicates that most likely an increased generation of oxidative products takes place in these patients.

Carnosine treatment during human semen processing by discontinuous density gradient

“…Oxidative stress occurs in results of oxidative imbalance by an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) or by decrease/absence in antioxidant status (Gulum et al, ; Riaz et al, ). This process can lead to damages to polyunsaturated lipids present in sperm plasma membrane, as well as to the DNA, RNA and proteins (Atig, Kerkeni, Saad, & Ajina, ; Kamkar, Ramezanali, & Sabbaghian, ; Mello Filho et al, ; Sposito et al, ). This imbalance can also be observed in reproductive biotechnologies, (e.g., semen cryopreservation; Amidi, Pazhohan, Shabani, Khodarahmian, & Nekoonam, ; Panner Selvam et al, ), in vitro fertilisation and in protocols with an excessive manipulation of semen, as plasma separation through centrifugation (Donnelly et al, ) and also sperm separation (Raad et al, ).…”

Oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of male infertility

“…Testicular cancer wields a significant impact on male infertility, both by way of surgical, as well as adjuvant treatment (Ping, Gu, Li, Huang, & Li, 2014). testicular cancer, when compared to healthy controls (Sposito et al, 2017).…”

Effect of the oral intake of astaxanthin on semen parameters in patients with oligo-astheno-teratozoospermia: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial

“…16 It has been confirmed that antioxidant capacity in semen is decreased in infertile men and men with testicular cancer with a high ROS proportion, compared to men with a normal proportion of ROS. [17][18][19] Sperm function tests have arisen as a supplement to standard semen analysis. 20 The DNA integrity of spermatozoa has a critical impact in determining sperm competence 21,22 which is related to ROS levels 9,10 and can be measured by sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) assays.…”