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Updated: Jul 10, 2025
Body Composition and Metabolic Caging Analysis in High Fat Fed Mice
Published on: May 24, 2018
Low-Fat, High-Carbohydrate Diets Reduce Body Weight and Sperm Count but Increase Sperm Motility in Mice
Angela J Crean1, Tamara J Pulpitel1, Taylor Pini2
1The University of Sydney, Charles Perkins Centre, New South Wales, Australia; The University of Sydney, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, New South Wales, Australia.
Background:
Male reproduction is impacted by both over- and under-nutrition, demonstrated by animal studies using high-fat and low-protein dietary interventions. Little is known about the impacts of low-fat, high-carb diets and types of dietary carbohydrates on sperm traits.
Objectives:
Using a nutritional geometry approach, we investigated the effects of partially or completely substituting glucose for fructose in isocaloric diets containing either 10%, 20%, or 30% fat (by energy) on sperm traits in mice.
Methods:
Male C57BL/6J mice were fed 1 of 15 experimental diets for 18 wk starting from 8 wk of age. Reproductive organs were then harvested, and sperm concentration, motility, and velocity were measured using Computer-Assisted Sperm Analysis.
Results:
Increasing dietary fat from 10% to 30% while maintaining energy density at 14.3 kJ/g and protein content at 20% resulted in increased body weight and sperm production but reduced the percentage of motile sperm. Body weight and seminal vesicle weight were maximized on diets containing a 50:50 mix of fructose and glucose, but carbohydrate type had few significant impacts on epididymal sperm traits.
Conclusions:
The opposing impacts of dietary fat on mouse sperm quantity and quality observed suggest that male fertility may not be optimized by a single diet; rather, context-specific dietary guidelines targeted to specific concerns in semen quality may prove useful in treating male infertility.
