Short Communication For reprint orders, please contact: reprints@futuremedicine.com Impact of chronic hepatitis B virus infection on semen parameters of fertile men Emad A Taha 1 , Mohamed A Mekky 2 , Hisham D Gaber 1 , Reham M Abdel-Gaber 1 , Asmaa M Zahran 3 , Eman SH Abd Allah 4 , Ahmed Q Mohamed 5 , Ashraf E Hasaballah 6 , Taymour Mostafa 7 & Helal F Hetta* ,8,9 1 Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Andrology , Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 2 Department of Tropical Medicine & Gastroenterology, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 3 Department of Clinical Pathology, South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 4 Department of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 5 Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt 6 Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 7 Department of Andrology and Sexology, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt 8 Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 9 Department of Internal Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA *Author for correspondence: hettahf@ucmail.uc.edu Aim: To investigate the effect of chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB) infection on semen parameters of males with proven fertility. Material & methods: 61 fertile men with CHB infection and a control group of 42 HBV-negative fertile men were assessed for serum and semen HBV viral loads by quantitative real-time PCR, complete semen analysis, hypo-osmotic swelling test, seminal total peroxide, total antioxidant capac- ity assay and sperm DNA integrity evaluation. Results: CHB men demonstrated signifcantly lower sperm motility, sperm viability and sperm DNA integrity, seminal total antioxidant capacity assay and signif- cantly increased seminal total peroxide and oxidative stress index compared with controls. CHB cases with positive semen HBV DNA showed a signifcant increase in seminal total peroxide and oxidative stress in- dex compared with CHB cases with negative semen HBV DNA. Conclusion: CHB has a negative burden on seminal parameters in fertile men. First draft submitted: 21 April 2019; Accepted for publication: 16 July 2019; Published online: 22 August 2019 Keywords: HBV • hypo-osmotic swelling test • male infertility • oxidative stress • semen • sperm DNA fragmentation • sperm motility HBV is known to have a tendency to a chronic course with wide range of extrahepatic manifestations [1–3]. One of these remote tissues is the testicular compartment, and the seminal fluid as the virus is able to cross the blood–testis barrier, niche in the seminal fluid [4] and the sperm cell [5] and integrate into sperm chromosomes [6]. The interaction between chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection and male fertility has gained a great interest in many studies [7] and the main conclusion is the great association of CHB activity and the concomitant impairment of semen parameters and the increase in both seminal oxidative stress markers, such as malondialdehyde and inflammatory cytokines, for example, IL-17 and IL-18 [7,8]. Since all these studies were conducted on semen parameters of infertile men, there are possible confounding co-factors that may be responsible for such impairment of semen parameters. So, we herein, aimed to assess the real effect of CHB on different semen parameters in subjects with proved fertility. Material & methods Patients’ characteristics & study design A cross-sectional, case–controlled study was designed to include fertile men (fathered a baby within the previous 12 months). Cases are recruited from our Viral Hepatitis Management Unit at Assiut University Hospital, Egypt. All cases proved to have CHB and were fertile, were requested to give a semen sample after they had given written informed consent. Future Virol. (2019) 14(8), 515–522 ISSN 1746-0794 515 10.2217/fvl-2019-0039 C  2019 Future Medicine Ltd