Pharmacological Effects and Immune Mechanisms of Oriental Medicines in Restoring Male Infertility.

Male infertility can be the result of many factors, including pathologies in the motility and formation of sperm and obstructions in the genitourinary system. Oriental medicine, using multiple components to address various targets and enhance therapeutic effectiveness, has been used to treat male infertility for thousands of years. Given the complex pathological mechanisms of aspermatogenesis, this multi-target approach in oriental medicine is believed to positively impact the prevention of male infertility. Efforts have been made to evaluate the pharmacological properties of many herbs. However, the testicular immune responses and mechanisms of these oriental medicines remain unclear from a modern scientific perspective. Some studies reviewed here have reported on the recovery of spermatogenesis in infertility, the available research that evaluates the efficacy of oriental medicines in the treatment of aspermatogenesis and briefly summarizes the available rodent and human data on facilitating immunological differences in male infertility. These findings augment the current understanding of the immune mechanisms of oriental medicine as a treatment solution for male infertility.