Biomedical Research 2006; 17 (3): 175-178 Antioxidant treatment a new therapeutic approach to reversible male infertility * 1 Sunil B. Yadav, **Adinath N. Suryakar, ***Anil D. Huddedar, *Puspha P. Durgawale, * Pramod S. Shukla *Department of Biochemistry, ***Department of Surgery, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences Deemed Univer- sity, Karad (MS), India. **Department of Biochemistry, Dr. V.M.Medical College, Solapur (MS), India. Key Words: Antioxidants, Male infertility, Oxidative stress, Sperm function ability Accepted August 07 2006 Abstract The imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and total antioxidant ca- pacity in seminal fluid indicates oxidative stress and is correlated with male infertility. One of the rational strategies to counteract the oxidative stress is to increase the scavenging ca- pacity of seminal plasma. In such cases a combination of antioxidants may e more useful treatment of male infertility. We therefore undertook this study the usefulness of antioxi- dant supplementation on seminal oxidative stress and its relation with sperm function test. In present study total Sixty-one oligozoospermia patients and forty-four fertility proved healthy donors with normal sperm analysis were included in the study. Seminal lipid perox- ide, nitric oxide and total antioxidant power and various parameters were compared in- cluding sperm function test among the fertile control and before & after treatment of oligo- zoospermic patients. Of the 61 untreated oligoozoospermia patients the mean lipid peroxide and nitric oxide levels were found to be increased along with decreased total antioxidant power and sperm function ability as compared to fertile control subjects. However signifi- cant reduction in lipid peroxide and nitric oxide and improvement in seminal total antioxi- dant power, sperm function ability were observed after supplementary treatment of com- bined antioxidant. Introduction Infertility is defined as the failure of conception at least 12 month’s of unprotected intercourse [1]. Infertility is a worldwide problem and approximately 8-10% of couples within reproductive age group are infertile [2]. It is esti- mated that globally 60-80 million couples suffer from infertility every year, of which probably between 15-20 million are in India alone [3]. In the era of evidence-based medicine specific manage- ment of infertility should be based on identifying reversi- ble causes of infertility and treating them with suitable medications. However this may constitute a challenge. Since inspite of extensive research no identifiable cause can be found in 25% of infertile males [4]. Recently, oxidative stress has become the focus of interest as a potential cause of male infertility [5,6]. Normally, equilibrium exists between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and antioxidant scavenging activities in the male reproductive tract. Under physiological conditions, spermatozoa produces small amount of ROS, which are needed for capacitation acrosome reaction and fertilization 7 . However excessive amount of ROS produced by leukocytes and immature spermatozoa can cause damage to the normal spermato- zoa by inducing lipid peroxidation and DNA damage [8,9,10]. High concentration of ROS was detected in the semen of 30-80% infertile men [11]. In view of this rational strate- gies with the goal of reducing concentration of oxidative stress may be effective in the treatment of male infertility. Initially Clinician can identify and treat the cause for in- creased ROS production like reproductive tract infection, smoking, varicocele etc.[12]. Following this, augmenta-