2003 Director's Summary Synopsis

CHARACTERIZING MECHANISMS FOR MALE INFERTILITY
Nancy L. Brackett, Ph.D. • Charles M. Lynne, Ph.D.

For men, fertility problems associated with SCI can have a significant impact on fulfilling the desire to be a biological father. Scientists have known that most men with SCI have few moving sperm (poor motility), an abnormality that significantly affects their ability to father children naturally. Research evidence from the laboratory of Drs. Nancy Brackett and Charles Lynne suggests that sperm motility is poor because of changes in the seminal plasma. Produced by the seminal vesicles and the prostate gland, seminal plasma is the fluid that combines with the sperm during ejaculation. An unusually high number of leukocytes, immune system cells associated with inflammation, are noted in the seminal plasma.

Thus, the investigators conducted a study to determine if the leukocytes were coming from the prostate gland. Brackett and colleagues analyzed biopsy tissue of the prostate glands of healthy men and men with SCI. They found no inflammation and no abnormalities and conclude that the increased number of leukocytes in the semen is not due to inflammation of the prostate. Since the inflammatory cells are not coming from the prostate, further research will be necessary to determine the source of the seminal plasma abnormalities so that treatments to improve semen quality can be formulated.

Synopsis Publications

 Randall JM, Evans DH, Bird VG, Aballa TC, Lynne CM, Brackett NL (2003) Leukocytospermia in spinal cord injured patients is not related to histological inflammatory changes in the prostate. J Urol 170:897-900.