Correlation study between level of zinc and lead in serum and seminal plasma in infertile patients

Abstract

Male infertility is a serious problem all over the world. Nutritional deficiency of trace element Zinc (Zn) may play a role in male infertility as Zn plays an important role not only in normal testicular development, but also in spermatogenesis and sperm motility. Deficiency of Zn is associated with hypogonadism and insufficient development of secondary sex characteristics. In order to get a complete overview of the possible mechanism of lead-induced toxicity on the reproductive system, all important constraints like sperm parameters, morphology, and disruption in hormones, gene expressions, spermatogenesis, and steroidogenesis were analyzed from previous research findings. The normal sperm parameters were directly affected by lead exposure. It causes alteration at the reproductive axis, sperm motility and viability, acrosome reaction, chemotaxis[1]. Semen quality [2].and structural abnormality in lead treated animals [3]. Lead chloride exposure significantly repressed the motility and increased the tail anomalies and immotile sperm count [4]. The reduction of sperm motility was also found in lead chloride exposure in the human study [5]. The present study was designed to analyse the level of seminal and serum Zn and pb among different groups of infertile patients and to correlate it with sperm concentration, active, sluggish and immotile fractions of seminal parameters, with an objective to establish the role of Zn and pb in male infertility. The present study was carried out in tow- year's period from 2019 to 2020. It was a descriptive analytical study with non-probability sampling. Semen and serum examination of the patients was carried out according to the standardized method of the World Health Organization. Was estimated by atomic absorption (Flameless Atomic absorption). Data were entered using Excel Microsoft Program (2016) and analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Categorical data described as frequency and percentage while numerical data described means and standard deviation (SD). Chi square test was used to estimate the association between two categorical variables. While, independent sample t-test used for comparison of numerical data. Level of significance of ≤ 0.05 was considered as significant[6]. In the present study, a comparison was done for the levels of trace elements (zinc and lead in serum and semen of fertile and infertile males. The results showed a highly significant difference (p<0.05) in the level of these elements between these groups both in serum and semen. (Data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation). Conclusions: Effect of heavy elements on the parameter of semen. Heavy elements are bound together in serum and semen. Heavy elements are linked to external influences, such as smoking alcohol.