THE POSITIVE EFFECT OF RESVERATROL ON MOTILITY AND DNA FRAGMENTATION OF HUMAN SPERMATOZOA DURING CRYOPRESERVATION
PAVEL TSONEV1, DIMITAR PARVANOV1*, RUMIANA GANEVA1, ILIAN DZAGAROV1, VLADIMIR STAIKOV1, DIANA IVANOVA1, GUEORGUI STAMENOV1, TODOR CHAUSHEV1
1 Nadezhda,Women’s Health Hospital, 3 “Blaga vest” Street, Sofia, Bulgaria
*Corresponding author: e-mail: dimparvanov@abv.bg
Keywords: Resveratrol, human spermatozoa, cryopreservation
Abstract: Freezing and thawing procedures of human spermatozoa trigger the excessive production of reaction oxygen species (ROS) that cause damage to spermatozoa. Resveratrol, a natural polyphenol, produced from several plants is being envisioned as a valuable antioxidant that prevents DNA damage.
The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of resveratrol supplementation into cryopreservation medium on the motility and DNA fragmentation of human spermatozoa after freezing-thawing procedure.
Semen was collected from 26 normozoospermic (N) patients. All samples were cryopreserved in nitrogen vapour after ten minutes incubation. After one week samples were thawed and sperm motion was measured. Using the Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA), the number of DNA fragmented sperm, expressed as DNA fragmentation index (DFI) was evaluated in each sample.
The addition of 0.01 mM resveratrol into cryopreservation medium have lead to better motility in 81% of the studied patients. The number of progressive spermatozoa in the samples with resveratrol was significantly higher compared with the control semen samples measured after the thawing procedure (25.45 ± 12.65 vs. 15.75 ± 9.65, respectively). The impact of resveratrol on DNA fragmentation of investigated spermatozoa was relatively small and led to insignificant change in the DFI. However, in 63% of the patients the addition of resveratrol had a positive effect and resulted in lower DFI in comparison with the control semen samples.
In conclusion, the supplementation of 0.01 mM resveratrol significantly improves the post-thawed human spermatozoa progressive motility and decreases the level of DNA fragmentation.