Seminal prolactin and its relationship to sperm motility in men

Reproductive hormones in seminal plasma; it's effect on semen quality

“…Since spermatozoa never come in contact with blood, it is the seminal hormones that act on sperm receptors. Several resea rchers (5,6,7,8) have demonstrated presence of a range of steroid hormones, their precursors and metabolites together with their regulatory pituitary hormones in seminal plasma. As measurable quantities of hormones are found in the seminal plas ma in which the sperm live, these hormones are likely to affect the quality of sperm activity.…”

Hyperprolactinemia in Men with Asthenozoospermia, Oligozoospermia, or Azoospermia

“…Some reports have not described significant differences in the PRL values of patients with oligo-and normozoospermia [2, 4, 301; others have reported that oligozoospermic [ 15, 261 and azoospermic [28] men have hyperprolactinemia with negative correlation between sperm count and PRL serum concentrations. On the other hand, higher seminal PRL levels were associated with lower sperm counts [13, 171 and higher [13] or lower [27] percentages in motility. Eggert-Kruse et al [S], however, found no correlation between serum PRL levels and any other of the semen parameters…”

Corrected Seminal Fructose Test

“…On the contrary, they were related more to citric acid levels (Table 4). Previously, we demonstrated that subjects with hypofunction of the seminal vesicles have lower levels of seminal prolactin than controls (8.0 f 1.3 vs. 11.9 f 1.4 nglmL) [12], but mean value of seminal prolactin in hypofunction of the seminal vesicles is also higher in comparison to other products secreted by these glands [S]. This indicates that prolactin may also be secreted by other sex accessory glands, probably the prostate, as suggested from the present data and those reported previously [9].…”

“…Instead, corrected fructose, which is not dependent from sperm count, has been demonstrated to be an adequate marker of the seminal vesicles [8, [12][13][14][15]. In addition, corrected fructose and not uncorrected fructose correlated with serum testosterone under basal conditions or after clomiphene stimulation [lo].…”