Erfaneh Shaygannia - Raha pharmaceutical Company, Isfahan, Iran.
Marzeyeh Tavalaee - Royan Institute for Biotechnology, ACECR, Isfahan, Iran.

Background: Varicocele is the main cause of male infertility worldwide. There is a close linkage between varicocele pathogenesis and oxidative stress. It is indicated that male infertility is associated with a lower intake of some antioxidant nutrients. One of the antioxidants which recently noticed is alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) that highly used in different diseases. Recently, it is used to treat infertility. Therefore, in the present study we tried to investigate effects of ALA on semen parameters (concentration, motility and abnormal morphology) in rats with experimentally induced varicocele.Methods: Adult male Wistar rats (n=40) were divided into 4 groups of 10 animals each. Group I and II were considered as control and varicocele-induced groups, respectively. Rats received and did not receive alpha-lipoic acid for 2 months after inductions of varicocele were considered as group III and IV. Then, sperm concentration, motility and morphology were assessed in semen samples of each group.Result: sperm normal morphology, motility and concentration were significantly low in varicocele induced group compared with control group , hence, we observed significant recovery in all the semen parameters in ALA-treated group compared with un treated group.Conclusion: The present study is the first study which evaluates ALA antioxidant effect on the varicocele-induced rats. We concluded that ALA has a strong potential in neutralizing oxidant effect of ROS-induced by varicocele in morphology, motility and concentration of male rats. We suggest that further studies should be conduct on the effect of ALA in infertilities caused by varicocele in human.

ALA, Antioxidant, Semen parameters, Varicocele