Mechanisms of Sperm Oxidation: Breaking Down the Origins of Oxidative Activity

Abstract

Oxidative stress has been long considered an important cause of male infertility, and sperm-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been considered one of the major sources. In article number 1900205, Issue 2, Netherton et al. have improved upon current technologies for detection of true ROS-derived oxidative events from those originated by mitochondrial compounds. Moreover, the authors have isolated proteins that bear lipid aldehyde adducts, in order to verify their origin. In their paper, Netherton et al. demonstrate that sperm-derived ROS do not contribute to sperm oxidative stress, which is an important finding, given that most studies consider altered sperm a major source of seminal ROS. Moreover, adducted proteins are mostly of prostatic origin, which leads to questions regarding how and where the oxidative events occur. Under the light of this study and the methodological improvements it has brought, it may be important to revisit some foundation studies in semen and sperm oxidative stress.

Origanum vulgareL. leaves extract alleviates testis and sperm damages induced by finasteride: Biochemical, Immunohistological and apoptosis genes based evidences

“…In contrast, some studies have demonstrated no correlation between ROS and sperm motility (Pasqualotto, Sharma, Nelson, Thomas, & Agarwal, 2000). In fact, ROS may result in decreased axonemal protein phosphorylation and reduced membrane fluidity (Bertolla, 2020). Certain ROS, like H 2 O 2 , can diffuse across cellular membranes and disrupt enzyme activity, such as with G6PD (Zandalinas & Mittler, 2018).…”