Sperm counts may have declined in young university students in Southern Spain.

Several studies have investigated temporal trends in semen quality in Northern Europe, but none has examined this question in Southern Europe. A prior study conducted in Almeria Province (Southern Spain) reported higher sperm count and concentration among Spanish young men recruited from 2001 to 2002 compared with young men from Northern Europe. The aim of this new study was to examine whether semen quality has changed among Spanish young men in the last decade.

Dietary intake of antioxidant nutrients is associated with semen quality in young university students.

Study Question: What are the associations between the dietary intake of antioxidant nutrients and semen parameters in young men?

Summary Answer: Our study suggests that some sperm parameters are sensitive to dietary intake of antioxidant nutrients.

What Is Known Already: A few reports have suggested that some dietary factors might be related to semen quality. However, the relationship between the intake of antioxidant nutrients and semen quality in young men remains unexplored.

Combined determination of glucose and fructosamine in vitreous humor as a post-mortem tool to identify antemortem hyperglycemia.

In clinical practice, serum glucose levels are used to diagnose diabetes mellitus. In post-mortem diagnosis, however, biochemical markers in vitreous humor are more useful because of the difficulty involved in interpreting blood glucose levels and relatively non-specific pathological features. The aim of this study was to analyze the usefulness of post-mortem determination of glucose and fructosamine combined and to compare the results with those obtained for fructosamine and combined glucose and lactate levels in two diagnostic groups (one diabetic and the other non-diabetic).

Heterotypic tubular connections at the endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi complex interface.

Electron microscopy and cryoimmunocytochemistry were used to characterize tubular connections in the secretory pathway using rat spermatids as model. Our results support the existence of a complex tubular network enriched in the Golgi matrix protein GM130 that transiently joins the cis-Golgi side and the endoplasmic reticulum. These tubules occasionally contain the endoplasmic reticulum resident protein PDI but not COPII complexes or KDEL receptor.