Human sperm parameter improvement associated with Ceratonia siliqua extract as a cryopreservation supplement after vitrification

Abstract

Objective: Given the destructive effects of oxidative stress on sperm structure, this study was conducted to investigate the antioxidant effects of different concentrations of <i>Ceratonia siliqua</i> plant extract on human sperm parameters after the freezing-thawing process.Methods: A total of 20 normozoospermic samples were frozen. Each sample was divided into two control groups (fresh and cryopreservation) and three cryopreservation experimental groups (containing <i>C. siliqua</i> extract at concentrations of 20, 30, and 40 µg/mL in the freezing extender). Motility, intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), plasma membrane integrity (PMI), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), viability, and acrosome reaction parameters were evaluated. Results: Statistical analysis showed that the highest motility, viability, and PMI were associated with the 20 µg/mL concentration of <i>C. siliqua</i> extract. At all concentrations, intracellular ROS levels were significantly lower and the levels of MMP and the acrosome reaction were significantly higher than in the cryopreservation control group (p≤0.05).Conclusion: <i>C. siliqua</i> extract supplements at concentrations of 20, 30, and 40 µg/mL improved sperm motility, viability, PMI, MMP, intracellular ROS, and the acrosome reaction.

Biological Activities of Ceratonia siliqua Pod and Seed Extracts: A Comparative Analysis of Two Cretan Cultivars

“…Our results agree with findings in the literature, where pretreatment with C. siliqua pod extract was shown to ameliorate the viability of 3T3 embryonic mouse fibroblasts, immortalized human keratinocytes, and A431 squamous carcinoma cells exposed to H 2 O 2 [37], while an aqueous carob pod extract was found to protect against H 2 O 2 -induced DNA damage [42]. Interestingly, reducing effects of carob extract on intracellular ROS levels have been also reported for human sperm cells [67]. Extracts from other parts of the carob tree, such as sapwood and leaf, have been shown to revert H 2 O 2 -stimulated intracellular ROS levels of HeLa cells [51,51], though germ flour extract was observed to increase ROS levels in the same cell type [47].…”

International Biological Flora:Ceratonia siliqua

“…Carob has long been used in herbal and contemporary medicine (Asma et al, 2023;Ikram et al, 2023;Laguna et al, 2017;Martins et al, 2018). The high antioxidant capacity of carob fruits (Brassesco et al, 2021;Makris & Kefalas, 2004) has been used to treat male infertility (Aghajani et al, 2021), anxiety (Lakkab et al, 2019), reduce cholesterol levels (Nasar-Abbas et al, 2016), help toothache (Akbulut & Bayramoglu, 2013), help with gastrointestinal problems including constipation, diarrhoea, ulcers and cancers, likely due to the high condensed tannin levels in fruits (Brassesco et al, 2021;López-Sánchez et al, 2018;Senouci et al, 2023) treat anaemia, asthma, pharyngitis, bronchitis, colds and influenza and breast cancer (Alm, 2002;Elbouzidi et al, 2023;Sargin & Büyükcengiz, 2019), and improve the cryopreservation of human sperm (Farazmand et al, 2023). It may also have important antimalarial value (Custódio et al, 2008) and antimicrobial activity (Abbassy et al, 2020;Karmous et al, 2022) although evidence for the latter is contradictory (Azab, 2017).…”