Seminal Oxidation-Reduction Potential

Abstract

Male infertility affects 15% of all couples in the world. As healthcare access continues to improve in the developing nation, the number of couples diagnosed with infertility is likely to increase. The current methods to determine male fertility were established by the World Health Organization (WHO) fifth edition guidelines that have several limitations. The main limitations are that they do not evaluate sperm functionality nor do they represent all the regions of the globe. The main aspect of functionality tests is to determine the sperm’s ability to fertilize the oocyte. When functional tests show an impairment in the ability of sperm to fertilize the oocyte, the most common pathologies associated are those mediated by oxidative stress (OS). While many OS pathologies are resolved by intracytoplasmic sperm injection, sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) will decrease the success of pregnancy. SDF is predominately induced by OS and thus has spurred developments in assays that can determine OS in semen. The most recent assay, the MiOXSYS system, produces a quick and reliable measure of OS. Not only does oxidation-reduction potential of semen correlate with sperm parameters, it is a cost-effective measure of OS. The MiOXSYS system has been rigorously validated by some investigators and has undergone global validation to become an established metric of OS-induced infertility.