Effect of high-fat and vitamin D deficient diet on rat sperm quality and fertility

Vitamin D (VD) is involved in many functions of the reproductive system male. The intake of diets high-fat and vitamin D deficiency (VD^-) can cause morphological and physiological changes in testis that relate to infertility in the male. However, its effects on sperm quality and in vivo fertility have been little studied. This study analyzed the effects of fat and VD on sperm quality and in vivo fertility in sperm of Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats were divided into four groups: G1: control diet with vitamin D (C/VD⁺), G2: control diet without vitamin D (C/VD^-), G3: high-fat diet with vitamin D (HF/VD⁺) and G4: high-fat diet without vitamin D (HF/VD^-) and were fed for 3 months. Adipose tissue weight and plasma glucose were determined. Sperm quality was analyzed for motility (MO), mitochondrial function and fertilizing capacity. The intake of a high-fat diet caused a significant increase in body weight of rats (P < 0.05). There were fat-by-VD interaction effects (P < 0.05) on MO and MMP. MO and MMP were greater (P < 0.05) in G1 (54 ± 5.5% and 60.5 ± 2.6%) than in G3 and G4 (20 ± 6.0% and 27.7 ± 3.6), whereas G2 (36.7 ± 8.9% and 30.7 ± 4.2%) was intermediate. There was no fat-by-VD interaction for fertilizing capacity. However, fertilizing capacity was greater (P > 0.05) in animals receiving control diet (70 ± 21%); than in animals receiving high-fat diet (20 ± 11%). Our results demonstrated that the high-fat diet and VD^- contribute to the decrease in sperm quality (MO, MMP) and consequently could decrease the fertilizing capacity.