A strong positive correlation exists between teratozoospermia and reactive oxygen species production, which in turn has negative effects on their in vitro fertilisation outcome. Our aim of this study was to determine potential protective effects of α-tocopherol on teratozoospermia motility, viability, acrosome reaction and DNA integrity after 1-h in vitro incubation. Teratozoospermic semen samples were obtained from 15 volunteers aged between 20 and 30 years after 3-5 days of sexual abstinence. Samples were washed, centrifuged and incubated in 37 °C and 5% CO(2) until sperm swimmed-up. Spermatozoa were counted in the supernatant and divided into four groups, each contained 2 × 10(6) sperm/ml(-1). Groups one to four were incubated for 1 h with Ham's F-10 solution as control group, 10 μm A23187, 40 μmα-tocopherol and 10 μm A23187 + 40 μmα-tocopherol respectively. The results indicated that α-tocopherol has ability to enhance teratozoospermia viability and motility, while there were no ameliorative effects on acrosome reaction and DNA fragmentation. A23187 induced acrosome reaction in teratozoospermia and α-tocopherol significantly diminished this effect. In conclusion, although α-tocopherol could improve teratozoospermia motility and viability, its effects on DNA integrity and acrosome reaction ability as supplementation IVF culture media are not obvious.

This study describes the effects of royal jelly (RJ) on testicular injury induced by nicotine (NIC) in mice. Thirty‐six male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into six groups (n = 6). Group 1 received normal saline, group 2 received 100 mg/kgBW/day RJ, groups 3 and 4 received NIC at doses of 0.50 and 1.00 mg/kgBW/day, respectively, and groups 5 and 6 received NIC at doses of 0.50 and 1.00 mg/kg BW/day, respectively, plus RJ. Following 35 days, the serum level of testosterone, histopathological changes, germ cell apoptosis, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and antioxidant indexes including total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and catalase (CAT) activity were determined. In addition, the mitochondria‐dependent apoptosis was investigated by assessing the Bcl‐2, p53, and Caspase‐3 mRNA levels expression by reverse transcription‐PCR (RT‐PCR). Compared to NIC receiving groups, the concomitant administration of RJ could protect the testosterone reduction and histological damages. After RJ treatment, the level of tissue MDA content decreased, while tissue TAC and CAT levels were remarkably increased compared to NIC‐exposed groups. Remarkable higher TUNEL‐positive germ cells and low PCNA index were observed in NIC receiving groups. Besides, the expression level of Bcl‐2 was significantly higher and the p53 and Caspase‐3 levels were significantly lower in the RJ co‐administration groups than NIC‐only receiving groups. Our results confirmed that RJ effectively protects the testis against NIC evoked damages by antioxidant and anti‐apoptotic effects involving the up regulation of the antioxidant status, mitochondria‐dependent apoptosis pathway prevention, and the proliferating activity improvement.