<p>Eurycoma longifolia (Tongkat Ali / TA) is a Malaysian shrub used to treat various illnesses including male infertility. Considering that TA is also used to improve male fertility and no report  / regarding its safety has been published, this study investigated the effects of a patented, aqueous TA extract on various sperm and testicular functions. Materials and Methods This study  / encompasses two parts (part 1: on spermatozoa / part 2: on TM3-Leydig and TM4-Sertoli cells). Part 1: Semen samples of 27 patients and 13 fertile donors were divided into two groups,  / washed and swim-up prepared spermatozoa, and incubated with different concentrations of TA (1, 10, 20, 100, 2000 &mu / g/ml) for 1 hour at 37° / C. A sample without addition of TA served as control. After incubation with TA,  / the following parameters were evaluated: viability (Eosin-Nigrosin test), total and progressive motility (CASA), acrosome reaction (triple stain technique), sperm production of reactive oxygen  / species (ROS / dihydroethidium test / DHE), sperm DNA fragmentation (TUNEL assay) and mitochondrial membrane potential (&Delta / &psi / m) (Depsipher kit). Part 2: TM3-Leydig and TM4-Sertoli cells  / incubated with different concentrations of TA (0.4, 0.8, 1.6, 3.125, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50 &mu / g/ml) and control (without extract) for 48 and 96 hours. After incubation with TA, the following parameters were  / evaluated: viability (XTT), cell proliferation (protein assay), testosterone (testosterone ELISA test) and pyruvate (pyruvate assay). Results Part 1: For washed spermatozoa, significant  / dose-dependent trends were found  / for viability, total motility, acrosome reaction and sperm ROS production. However, these trends were only significant if the highest concentrations were included in the calculation. In the swim-up spermatozoa, ROS production of spermatozoa showed a biphasic relationship with its lowest percentage at 10 &mu / g/ml, yet, no significance could be  / observed (P=0.9505). No influence of TA could be observed for sperm DNA fragmentation nor &Delta / &psi / m.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UNWC/oai:UWC_ETD:http%3A%2F%2Fetd.uwc.ac.za%2Findex.php%3Fmodule%3Detd%26action%3Dviewtitle%26id%3Dgen8Srv25Nme4_2238_1375971626 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Erasmus, Nicolete |
| Source Sets | Univ. of Western Cape |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis and dissertation |
| Format | |
| Coverage | ZA |
| Rights | Copyright: University of the Western Cape |
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