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Although the enhanced chemiluminescence assay is commonly used to measure the nonenzymatic total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of the human seminal plasma, it is cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming. We describe herein an alternate method to measure TAC that is based on the ability of antioxidants in seminal plasma to interfere with a reaction between 2,2'-azino-di-[3-ethylbenzthiazoline sulphonate] and metmyoglobin with H(2)O(2). This reaction produces a relatively stable blue-green color with absorbance maxima at 600 nm. We compared this colorimetric assay with our established chemiluminescence method and assessed quality control parameters (ie, intra-assay and interassay variabilities) in addition to intraobserver and interobserver differences. Our results show that the colorimetric assay was fairly predictive of antioxidant capacity similar to the chemiluminescence assay (P <.001). Furthermore, there was a high level of agreement between the duplicate measures by the same observer (intraobserver) and intra-assay variability, with a concordance correlation coefficient of 0.99. The interassay coefficient of variation was 4.7% (overall). The mean +/- SD of the difference between the 2 observers was 2.98% +/- 4.1%. In conclusion, we found that the colorimetric assay is a reliable and accurate method to evaluate seminal TAC, and it could be used as a simpler, rapid, and cheaper alternative to the chemiluminescence assay.

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These data indicate that culture conditions can modulate post-thaw embryonic development and apoptosis.

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