[Semen quality of infertile men carrying hepatitis B virus]

To study the semen parameters of infertile men carrying hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the influence of HBV infection on semen quality.

We collected the semen samples from 782 infertility males aged 25－35 years old. According to the results of serological examinations, we divided the patients into groups A (HBsAg, HBeAb and HBcAb positive, n = 286), B (HBsAg, HBeAg and HBcAb positive, n = 230) and C (non-HBV control, n = 266), and comparatively analyzed the routine semen parameters, sperm acrosin activity, sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) and high DNA stainability (HDS) among the three groups of patients.

Compared with the patients of groups B and C, those of group A showed markedly decreased sperm concentration (［88.20 ± 82.62］ and ［89.29 ± 53.80］ vs ［71.49 ± 60.03］ ×10⁶/ml, P<0.05), progressively motile sperm (PMS) (［34.88 ± 15.60］% and ［37.82 ± 13.63］% vs ［30.70 ± 14.79］%, P<0.05), sperm motility (［45.77 ± 16.58］% and ［48.16 ± 14.03］% vs ［42.67 ± 17.23］%, P<0.05), sperm viability (［82.55 ± 7.55］% and ［85.26 ± 6.39］% vs ［81.07 ± 10.19］%, P>0.05) and morphologically normal sperm (MNS) (［6.93 ± 4.45］% and ［7.27 ± 4.43］% vs ［5.72 ± 3.47］%, P<0.05), with sperm concentration, PMS, sperm motility, sperm viability and MNS remarkably lower in group B than in C. Sperm acrosin activity was significantly reduced in group A in comparison with groups B and C (［57.07 ± 26.38］ vs ［63.03 ± 28.75］ and ［78.00 ± 33.49］ μIU/106, P<0.01), remarkably lower in group B than in C (P<0.01). The sperm DFI and HDS, however, were markedly higher in group A than in B (［14.79 ± 9.46］% vs ［12.95 ± 7.29］% and ［11.60 ± 5.98］%, P<0.05; ［9.62 ± 6.20］% vs ［8.43 ± 4.72］% and ［8.41 ± 4.59］%, P<0.05), and both higher in group B than in C.

Semen quality is lower in infertile men carrying HBV and therefore HBV infection is one of the causes of male infertility.