Department of Anatomy, Research and Clinical Center for Infertility, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
Alcohol. 2011 Jun;45(4):403-9. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2010.10.005. Epub 2010 Dec 10.
Alcohol abuse is considered as one of the problems associated with poor semen production and sperm quality. Both acute and chronic alcohol consumption may affect spermatozoal chromatin disorders through apoptosis. Therefore, for the first time, this experimental study was performed to evaluate the effect of ethanol consumption on sperm parameters and chromatin integrity of spermatozoa aspirated from cauda epididymis of rats. Twenty adult Wistar rats were divided into ethanol consumption and control groups. Access to ethanol and water was provided ad libitum for experimental and control animals, respectively. The cauda epididymal spermatozoa were aspirated for analysis of sperm parameters and sperm chromatin integrity with aniline blue (AB), chromomycin A3 (CMA3), toluidine blue (TB), and acridine orange (AO) assays. Sperm progressive and nonprogressive motility of ethanol-consuming rats were significantly decreased compared with control animals (P < .05). In addition, the rates of AB-reacted spermatozoa were similar in both groups (P > .05). However, with regard to CMA3, AO, and TB stainings, there was a significant increase in ethanol group when compared with the controls (P < .05). The majority of TB+ and AO+ spermatozoa were higher than "cut-off" value in ethanol group, whereas the mean rates of CMA3+ spermatozoa was below the "cut-off" value in both groups. The results showed that ethanol consumption disturbs sperm motility, nuclear maturity and DNA integrity of spermatozoa in rat. Therefore, ethanol abuse results in the production of spermatozoa with less condensed chromatin, and this may be one possible cause of infertility following ethanol consumption.
酗酒被认为是与精液产生和精子质量差有关的问题之一。急性和慢性饮酒均可通过细胞凋亡影响精子染色质紊乱。因此，首次进行了这项实验研究，以评估乙醇消耗对大鼠附睾尾部精子参数和精子染色质完整性的影响。将 20 只成年 Wistar 大鼠分为乙醇消耗组和对照组。实验组和对照组的动物分别自由摄取乙醇和水。从附睾尾部抽吸精子，用苯胺蓝（AB）、色霉素 A3（CMA3）、甲苯胺蓝（TB）和吖啶橙（AO）检测分析精子参数和精子染色质完整性。与对照组相比，乙醇消耗大鼠的精子渐进和非渐进运动显著降低（P <.05）。此外，两组的 AB 反应精子率相似（P >.05）。然而，在用 CMA3、AO 和 TB 染色时，与对照组相比，乙醇组的比率显著增加（P <.05）。TB+和 AO+精子的多数比率高于乙醇组的“截止”值，而 CMA3+精子的平均比率在两组均低于“截止”值。结果表明，乙醇消耗会干扰大鼠精子的运动性、核成熟度和 DNA 完整性。因此，乙醇滥用会导致精子染色质凝结程度降低，这可能是乙醇消耗后导致不育的一个原因。
