Local and Systemic Free Radicals level in Unexplained Infertile Women

Abstract

Back ground:Infertility is one of the most important and underappreciated reproductive health problems in developing countries. The causes of infertility can be found in about 90% of cases, while about 10% of patients don’t know why they can not conceive .The causes of this case (unexplained infertility) seems to be heterogeneous, with suggested potential causes ranging from disturbances in endocrinological, immunological , genetic and reproductive physiological factors.One of the main causes of unexplained infertility is the reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore this study is aimed to estimate and calculate the ROS and to determine the relationship between free radicals, antioxidant enzymes activities and unexplained infertility. To carry out this aim, ROS has been estimated in both sera and cervical mucus secretions among healthy fertile women (control) and patients with unexplained infertility ; in form of malondialdehyde (MDA). In addition, catalase (CAT), glutathione level (GSH), vitamin C and vitamin E (as antioxidant agents ) for both fertile women and infertile women studied groups have estimated and calculated.Patients and method:The study groups were attended to Babylon Maternity and Pediatric Hospital and privet clinics. All studied patients are suffering from primary or secondary unexplained infertility types and are diagnosed by gynecologist. The study is carried out on (30) apparently healthy fertile women as a control group, their mean age (30.133±8.011years) and (60) infertile women as patient group, their mean age (29.866 ±7.195 years). Results : The results of the tests have shown that the malondialdehyde (MDA) were increased significantly (p<0.01) in serum and cervical mucus secretion(3.105± 1.441µM and 6.729±3.055)µM in patients group comparing with control group which where (1.524±0.518 µM and 3.201± 1.028µM) respectively. Catalase levels decrease significantly (p<0.05) in serum and cervical mucus.secretion (0.303± 0.286 k/ml and 0.331±0.302 k/ml) in patients group comparing with (0.479±0.342 k/ml and 0.508±0.301 k/ml) in control group. The glutathione levels, on the other hand, decrease significantly (p<0.05) in serum and cervical mucus. secretion (17.977±8.506 µM. and. 51.602 ±27.335µM) in patients group comparing with (27.384 ±13.547µM and 65.327±18.217µM) in control group.Vitamin C levels decrease insignificantly (p>0.05) in serum and cervical mucus secretion (9.944 ± 1.549mg/l and14.233 ±3.458mg/l) in patient group comparing with (10.383±3.655mg/l and (16.447± 4.042mg/l) in control group.Vitamin E levels decrease significantly (p<0.05) in serum and cervical mucus secretion(5.272 ± 1.228mg/l and 4.644 ± 1.343 mg/l) in patient groups comparing with (7.337±3.535 mg/l and 7.023± 0.754 mg/l) in control groups.Conclusion: The present study shows that the oxidative stress plays an important role in human fertility which is significantly increased in sera and cervical mucus secretion in patients with unexplained infertility.