Leukocytospermia

The role of leukocytes in semen (leukocytospermia) is still controversial. Contradictory reports on leukocytospermia have been published indicating negative effects on semen parameters and even in vitro fertilization (IVF) results, while other investigators did not find any negative influences of leukocytospermia on semen parameters. A few papers indicated a positive role for seminal leukocytes by elimination of morphological abnormal spermatozoa by phagocytosis. However, from the most recent literature, it is now clear that the most important deleterious effect of leukocytospermia may be the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) causing DNA fragmentation of spermatozoa, leading to significant reduced pregnancy rates with IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) when oocytes are inseminated with spermatozoa from leukocytospermic semen samples. Contradictive results on treatment of leukocytospermia by antibiotics have also been published. However, a survey of the literature indicated that more evidence is presented testifying that antibiotic treatment of leukocytospermia may be beneficial by lowering the number of seminal leukocytes and even improving semen parameters. Therefore, treating leukocytospermia seems indicated. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.