Background: Insufficient nutrition and inappropriate diet have been related to many diseases. Although the literature confirms the hypothesis that particular nutritional factors can influence the quality of semen, until today, there are no specific dietary recommendations created for infertile males. Since the male contribution to the fertility of a couple is crucial, it is of high importance to determine the dietary factors that can affect male fertility. Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate differences in sperm quality parameters, sperm oxidative stress values and sperm acrosome reaction between vegan diet consumers and non-vegans. Setting and Design: Prospective study in a University Medical School. Materials and Methods: The present study was undertaken to evaluate the sperm quality parameters of vegan diet consumers (10 males who had a strictly vegetable diet with no animal products) and compare them with non-vegans (10 males with no diet restrictions). Semen quality was assessed following the World Health Organization (2010) criteria. Acrosome and DNA integrity has been evaluated using the immunofluorescence technique. Statistical Analysis: All variables were analysed by IBM SPSS version 24. Mean differences among groups were compared by Mann–Whitney U-test. Results: Obtained results showed that total sperm count (224.7 [117–369] vs. 119.7 [64.8–442.8]; P = 0.011) and the percentage of rapid progressively motile sperm were significantly higher in the vegan group compared with the non-vegan group (1 [0–7] vs. 17.5 [15–30]; P < 0.0001). Furthermore, the oxidation-reduction potential (0.4 [0.3–0.9] vs. 1.5 [0.6–2.8]; P < 0.0001) and the proportion of spermatozoon with DNA damage (14.7 [7–33.5] vs. 8.2 [3–19.5]; P = 0.05) were significantly higher in the non-vegan group in comparison to the vegan group. Conclusions: Results obtained in this study provide additional evidence about the favourable effect of a plant-based diet on sperm parameters. To confirm our preliminary findings, further studies including larger cohorts are warranted.

Steroid hormone progesterone has been found to play an important role in the migration of spermatozoa through the reproductive tract, as well as to induce hyperactive motility and increase sperm velocity. The aim of this study was to examine whether progesterone could induce beneficial effects in vitrified and slow-frozen spermatozoa. During the research process, 50 semen samples were divided into three treatment groups; noncryopreserved, slow-freezing and vitrification. After thawing and an incubation period of 2 hr to induce capacitation, semen samples from each treatment group were treated with 50 nM, 25 nM progesterone and a control solution for 30 min. Thereafter, the sperm suspensions were examined manually to assess the proportion of viable and motile spermatozoa, as well as using the CASA to evaluate the velocity parameters. The results indicated a higher proportion of progressively motile spermatozoa in vitrified teratozoospermic samples and improved velocity parameters in slow-frozen normozoospermic and teratozoospermic samples. The main conclusion of this research was that the used progesterone concentration of 50 nM was sufficient to significantly improve the motility of vitrified teratozoospermic samples and velocity parameters of cryopreserved sperm samples. The present findings might have important implications in determining ways of improving the current low rates of motility in cryopreserved spermatozoa.

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