Effects of the crude extract of Polygala tenuifolia Willd on human sperm in vitro

Abstract

Abstract:The aim of the present study is to analyze sperm membrane changes and the spermicidal effect in treatment with the crude extract from Polygala tenuifolia Willd (PTW) in vitro. The root of PTW was extracted in distilled water. Normal human spermatozoa were used to assess the spermicidal activity (Sander-Cramer assay) of the extract from the PTW root. The hypo-osmotic swelling (HOS) test and the eosin Y (EY) staining were used to detect the integrity of sperm membrane and vitality. The sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) test was performed to determine sperm DNA integrity. N-9 was used as a reference standard and semen added to physiological saline was used as the control. Semen samples were donated by 42 healthy fertile men. The crude extract from the root of PTW could immobilize and kill 100% spermatozoa within 20 s in vitro at the concentrations of 20.0 and 10.0 mg/ml; at the concentration of 5.0 mg/ml, spermatozoa were immobilized in (39.5±3.2) s. In the groups of the crude extract from the root of PTW and N-9 solution, the rate of the normal HOS (tails swollen) and the white head (unstained) was 0%, and the rate of the abnormal HOS (tails unswollen) and red head (stained) was 100%. Sperm DNA fragmentation showed no change in exposure to the crude extract from the root of PTW and N-9 solution. The sperm revival test did not show any spermatozoa that recovered their motilities. The rapid spermicidal activity of the crude extract from the root of PTW in vitro may occur by the disruption of the sperm membrane integrity.

Sperm quality and DNA damage in men from Jilin Province, China, who are occupationally exposed to ionizing radiation

“…Sperm possessing nuclei with large or medium halos were considered to have non-fragmented DNA, whereas sperm possessing nuclei with small halos or those degraded and without a halo were considered to have fragmented DNA. The halo size and dispersion patterns were determined by oil immersion bright-field light microscopy at 1000X magnification, as reported by Fernández et al (2003) and Qiu et al (2011). The sperm DFI = number of sperm with fragmented DNA / total number of sperm × 100.…”

Scrotal heat stress causes sperm chromatin damage and cysteinyl aspartate-spicific proteinases 3 changes in fertile men

“…After the HOS test had been performed, the SCD test was carried out immediately to evaluate the sperm DNA fragmentation of the 28 subjects. The HOS/SCD methodology has been described previously [11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…When DNA damage was detected in sperm recovered from the epididymes within hours of heating this was taken as evidence that epididymal sperm are still susceptible to heat-induced DNA damage even though the DNA is tightly packaged with protamines. The hypo-osmotic swelling (HOS) test and the Eosin Y (EY) staining can evaluate sperm motality and detect the integrity of the tail membrane of sperm [12][13][14]. Sperm DNA fragmentation or sperm chromatin status can be evaluated in a variety of ways, including the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) [12][13][14][15], terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferasemediated d UDP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) [15], single cell gel electrophoresis (COMET) assay [16], the sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) test and aniline blue (AB) staining [17][18][19][20].…”

“…The degree of condensation can be shown with the aid of acidic aniline blue (AB) staining, which is able to discriminate between lysine-rich histones and arginine-and cysteine-rich protamines. However, the vitality and the integrity of the sperm membrane could not be determined using these tests [12][13][14].…”

Effects ofHeliopsis longipesethanolic extract on mouse spermatozoain vitro

“…While most spermicidal agents from plant extracts act on the sperm surface after inducing disruption of plasma membrane (Lohiya et al, 2000;Souad et al, 2007), there is evidence that nonoxynol-9 completely disrupts the structural integrity of the plasma membrane in human spermatozoa (Gupta et al, 2005;Qiu et al, 2011). …”