CHSU Discovery

Male factors are involved in the majority of infertile human patients worldwide. Free radicals and Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated oxidative damage have been linked to male infertility by causing increased membrane lipid peroxidation, excessive DNA fragmentation, increased apoptosis, and reduced motility in human spermatozoa. Vitamin E, which is a potent lipophilic substance, has been tested alone or in combination with some of the other antioxidant nutrients for the management of infertility in men. Results of in vitro experiments indicated that incubating human semen from infertile patients with vitamin E decreased ROS levels, reduced oxidative stress-induced sperm DNA damage, and improved acrosomal integrity in these samples. Some previous studies have demonstrated that when vitamin E was administered in combination with other antioxidants (vitamin C, coenzyme Q, or selenium) to infertile men, it resulted in significantly reduced sperm DNA damage and improved sperm concentration and motility. However, some of the recent clinical trials failed to illustrate statistically significant changes in semen quality after vitamin E therapy in the infertile patients. Thus, clear evidence on the positive clinical outcomes of vitamin E therapy in human male infertility is still debatable. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed to ensure a robust, transparent search process that minimizes bias and maximizes the retrieval of pertinent studies for review.