[Semen quality of infertile men carrying hepatitis B virus].

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

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

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