Abstract

Objectives

Infertility is one of the major concerns for male patients following spinal cord injury (SCI). Although the severity of the injury has a large impact on extent of infertility, the effect of exact injury extent (with specific affected spinal tracts) on fertility is not studied yet.

Materials and methods

In the present study, sperm parameters, locomotion scores, and hormonal changes were evaluated following dorsal one third SCI (1/3 SCI), dorsal two third SCI (2/3 SCI), and complete spinal cord transection (TX) at T8 spinal level in male rats.

Results

Sperm count decreased significantly following 1/3 SCI and Tx compered to normal (control and sham). In addition, sperm count decreased significantly in Tx compared to 1/3 SCI and 2/3 SCI. Concerning sperm motility, although, percentage of motile sperms decreased significantly in Tx group in comparison to all other groups, the percentage of rapid progressive motile sperms (RPM) decreased significantly in all SCI groups compared to normal. Meanwhile, locomotion score (BBB-score) showed a significant progressive decrease following SCI compared to normal or within SCI groups. However, there was no significant changes in the serum hormonal and seminal fructose concentrations following SCI compared to normal.

Conclusions

These results show that understanding the extent of SCI, the affected spinal tracts, and the resultant locomotion deficits may help to predict the deficits in sperm parameters and hence fertility potentials.

中文翻译：

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慢性脊髓损伤严重程度对大鼠精子参数的影响：与运动缺陷的相关性

摘要

目标

不育是脊髓损伤 (SCI) 后男性患者的主要担忧之一。尽管损伤的严重程度对不孕症的程度有很大的影响，但尚未研究确切的损伤程度（特定受影响的脊髓束）对生育能力的影响。

材料和方法

在本研究中，在 T8 脊髓背侧三分之一 SCI (1/3 SCI)、背侧三分之一 SCI (2/3 SCI) 和完全脊髓横断 (TX) 后评估精子参数、运动评分和激素变化雄性大鼠的水平。

结果

1/3 SCI 和 Tx 与正常（对照和假）相比，精子数量显着减少。此外，与 1/3 SCI 和 2/3 SCI 相比，Tx 中的精子数量显着减少。关于精子活力，尽管与所有其他组相比，Tx 组的活动精子百分比显着下降，但与正常相比，所有 SCI 组的快速进展活动精子（RPM）百分比显着下降。同时，与正常或 SCI 组相比，运动评分（BBB 评分）在 SCI 后显示出显着的进行性下降。然而，与正常相比，SCI 后血清激素和精液果糖浓度没有显着变化。

结论

这些结果表明，了解 SCI 的程度、受影响的脊髓束以及由此产生的运动缺陷可能有助于预测精子参数的缺陷，从而预测生育潜力。