Is reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in seminal fluid correlates with the severity of varicocele in infertile men?

It has been shown that increasing ROS production in seminal fluid is a potential cause of male infertility and that varicoceleis a known cause of increasing ROS production. But in these studies the correlation of the severity of the varicocele and amount of ROS production has not been addressed. In this prospective study we examined the level of ROS in seminal fluid of infertile men with varicocele according to its grade, and compared with ROS level in normal fertile men. 29 normal fertile and 34 infertile men with clinically diagnosed left varicocele were studied. Grade of varicocele were determined by physical examination. Level of ROS in seminal plasma was measured by a chemiluminescence assay. The ROS levels were significantly higher in patients with varicocele than normal men (mean: 1047.416 RLU VS 55.562 RLU, P=0.007). 17 patients had grade 1, 17 patients grade II and no one had grade III varicocele. The mean ROS level was 404.224 RLU and 1690.608 RLU in patients with grade I and II varicocele respectively. Our study showed that increase ROS production is an important factor in the etiology of male factor infertility in patients with varicocele that is also grade dependent.