Determination of seminal oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) as an easy and cost-effective clinical marker of male infertility

Abstract

Oxidative stress (OS) is an important contributing factor to male infertility. While previous methods to measure seminal OS are time-consuming and limited to the use of freshly produced semen, oxidation reduction potential (ORP) is easier and quicker to perform and can also be used in frozen semen. Therefore, this study evaluated the clinical utility of ORP as a potential marker of male infertility. ORP was measured in semen samples from 293 patients and 15 fertile controls and categorised according to WHO criteria as normozoospermic, oligozoospermic, asthenozoospermic, teratozoospermic and oligoasthenoteratozoospermic. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to differentiate these categories. Semen parameters were significantly different when subjects were grouped as control and patients or between the patient and normozoospermic group for concentration and morphology. ORP levels were significantly different between the control and normozoospermic group. When subjects were grouped based on concentration, motility, morphology or a combination of these, the area under the ROC curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and cut-off values were significantly different. These differences were significant when combined with ORP and grouped with any two sperm abnormalities. In conclusion, ORP is a quick, easy, cost-effective and reliable marker of semen quality as well as oxidative stress for use in a clinical setting.

Efficacy of Antioxidant Supplementation on Conventional and Advanced Sperm Function Tests in Patients with Idiopathic Male Infertility

“…Recently, ORP has been used as a tool to evaluate the seminal oxidative stress, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the seminal oxidant and reductant levels [20,43]. Furthermore, increased levels of ORP were also found to have a negative impact on the sperm vitality and mitochondrial membrane potential [44,45]. In the current study, we noticed a significant decrease in seminal ORP levels in infertile men after antioxidant treatment.…”

Reactive Oxygen Species and Sperm Cells

“…Instead, the oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) is a direct measurement of oxidative stress by the MiOXSYS system, which is a novel, easier, quicker, and less expensive technology to measure the transfer of electrons from reductants to oxidants in human semen [81,82]. Past studies have successfully evaluated ORP in the blood of patients with cerebral vascular disease, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome.…”

“…Past studies have successfully evaluated ORP in the blood of patients with cerebral vascular disease, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome. In recent years, ORP measurements in semen have been carried out [81,82]. Using a MiOXSYS Analyzer (Aytu BioScience Inc., Englewood, CO), ORP values were calculated and expressed as mV/10 6 spermatozoa/mL.…”

Oxidative stress-induced alterations in seminal plasma antioxidants: Is there any association with keap1 gene methylation in human spermatozoa?

“…Oxidative stress (OS) is a well‐known key player in the pathogenesis of idiopathic male infertility (Agarwal, Henkel, Sharma, Tadros, & Sabanegh, ; Agarwal, Virk, Ong, & Plessis, ). The principal mechanism of combating OS is via the activation of antioxidant defence mechanism (Agarwal et al, ).…”

“…Oxidative stress (OS) is a well‐known key player in the pathogenesis of idiopathic male infertility (Agarwal, Henkel, Sharma, Tadros, & Sabanegh, ; Agarwal, Virk, Ong, & Plessis, ). The principal mechanism of combating OS is via the activation of antioxidant defence mechanism (Agarwal et al, ). There are various mechanisms to trigger the expression of these antioxidant enzymes, among which keap1 (Kelch‐like ECH‐associated protein 1)‐Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2) mediated pathway is an important regulator of cellular defence against oxidative and electrophilic stress (Cheng, Wu, Guo, & Kong, ).…”