Effects of mitochondrial activity on human spermatozoa motility

Abstract:

Objective：To analyze effects of mitochondrial activity on human spermatozoa motility. Methods：Mitochondrial specific fluorescent dye，mitotracker deep red 633（MTDR），was used to stain sperms with different motility. And the flow cytometry was used to determine the activity of sperm mitochondria（that is，value of MTDR fluorescence intensity）. Rapamycin（RP） and hydroxychloro－quine（HCQ） were used to regulate the mitochondrial activity，and then measure the change of sperm motility. Results：MTDR fluores－cence intensity value was not correlated with spermatozoa progressive motility（PR） rate（r=0.182，P=0.268）. RP of 5 nmol/L or 100 nmol/L was able to significantly decrease the mitochondrial activity，and HCQ of 50 μmol/L was able to significantly increase the mitochondrial activity（P<0.05）. However，those above concentrations had no obvious effect on sperm motility（P>0.05）. Conclusion：There is no obvious effect of mitochondrial activity on human sperm motility.