Mediators of Inflammation

Research Article

Fatty Acid Profile and Metabolism Are Related to Human Sperm Parameters and Are Relevant in Idiopathic Infertility and Varicocele

Table 4

Significant correlations (Spearman’s Rho coefficient) between calculated ratios (parameters normalized to fatty acid (FA) content or sperm count) and semen characteristics, seminal isoprostanes (F₂-IsoPs), and cytoplasmic phospholipase (cPLA₂) levels.


Normalized parameters	Variables positively correlated to normalized parameters	Correlation coefficient (Rho) and statistical significance ()		Variables negatively correlated to normalized parameters	Correlation coefficient (Rho) and statistical significance ()
Normalized parameters		Rho	value		Rho	value

EPA/ARA	Sperm necrosis	0.482	<0.01	Sperm concentration	- 0.425	<0.05
	cPLA₂	0.512	<0.01	Total sperm number	- 0.410	<0.05
	N/ARA	0.526	<0.01	Sperm vitality	- 0.458	<0.05
	N/n-6	0.410	<0.05	SFA/MUFA	- 0.405	<0.05
	A/n-3	0.384	<0.05
	N/n-3	0.491	<0.01
SFA/MUFA	Sperm concentration	0.375	<0.05	Sperm necrosis	- 0.504	<0.01
	Sperm motility	0.516	<0.05	EPA/ARA	- 0.405	<0.05
	Sperm motility	0.516		n-6/n-3	- 0.511	<0.01
n-6/n-3	Sperm necrosis	0.599	<0.01	Sperm concentration	- 0.602	<0.01
	cPLA₂	0.519	<0.01	Total sperm number	- 0.464	<0.05
	F_2-IsoPs/sperm concentration	0.616	<0.05	Sperm motility	- 0.551	<0.01
	I/n-3	0.676	<0.01	Sperm morphology	- 0.540	<0.01
	N/n-3	0.741	<0.01	Fertility index	- 0.675	<0.01
				SFA/MUFA	- 0.511	<0.01
F_2-IsoPs/sperm concentration	Sperm necrosis	0.412	<0.01	Sperm concentration	- 0.833	<0.01
	Sperm immaturity	0.368	<0.05	Sperm morphology	- 0.617	<0.05
	F_2-IsoPs	0.370	<0.05	Sperm vitality	- 0.370	<0.05
	n-6/n-3	0.616	<0.05	Fertility index	- 0.643	<0.01
	I/n-3	0.558	<0.01
	N/n-3	0.523	<0.01
F_2-IsoPs/ARA	Sperm immaturity	0.522	<0.01	Sperm apoptosis	- 0.499	<0.01
	F_2-IsoPs	0.854	<0.01
	N/ARA	0.519	<0.01
A/ARA	Sperm apoptosis	0.675	<0.01	Sperm vitality	- 0.397	<0.05
	F₂-IsoPs	0.499	<0.01
	N/ARA	0.677	<0.01
	N/n-6	0.392	<0.05
N/ARA	Sperm necrosis	0.487	<0.01	Sperm vitality	- 0.625	<0.01
	EPA/ARA	0.526	<0.01
	F_2-IsoPs/ARA	0.519	<0.01
	A/ARA	0.677	<0.01
	N/n-6	0.578	<0.01
	N/n-3	0.621	<0.01
N/n-6	Sperm necrosis	0.557	<0.01	Sperm vitality	- 0.638	<0.01
	EPA/ARA	0.410	<0.05
	A/ARA	0.392	<0.05
	N/ARA	0.578	<0.01
	N/n-3	0.481	<0.01
I/n-3	Sperm necrosis	0.411	<0.05	Sperm concentration	- 0.447	<0.05
	Sperm immaturity	0.530	<0.01	Total sperm number	- 0.390	<0.05
	n-6/n-3	0.676	<0.01	Sperm morphology	- 0.443	<0.05
	F_2-IsoPs/sperm concentration	0.558	<0.01	Sperm vitality	- 0.389	<0.05
	N/n-3	0.745	<0.01	Fertility index	- 0.507	<0.01
A/n-3	Sperm necrosis	0.413	<0.05	Sperm concentration	- 0.415	<0.05
	Sperm apoptosis	0.666	<0.05	Sperm morphology	- 0.444	<0.01
	EPA/ARA	0.384	<0.05	Sperm vitality	- 0.611	<0.05
	n-6/n-3	0.408	<0.05	Fertility index	- 0.611	<0.01
	F_2-IsoPs/sperm concentration	0.376	<0.05
	A/ARA	0.475	<0.05
	N/ARA	0.362	<0.01
	N/n-6	0.523	<0.01
	I/n-3	0.570	<0.01
N/n-3	Sperm necrosis	0.829	<0.01	Sperm concentration	- 0.594	<0.01
	cPLA₂	0.449	<0.05	Total sperm number	- 0.458	<0.01
	EPA/ARA	0.491	<0.01	Sperm motility	- 0.468	<0.01
	n-6/n-3	0.741	<0.01	Sperm morphology	- 0.467	<0.01
	F_2-IsoPs/sperm concentration	0.523	<0.01	Sperm vitality	- 0.643	<0.01
	N/ARA	0.621	<0.01	Fertility index	- 0.692	<0.01
	N/n-6	0.481	<0.01
	I/n-3	0.745	<0.01
	A/n-3	0.653	<0.01

Sperm concentration: number of ; total sperm number: total number of sperm in the ejaculate; sperm motility: percentage of progressive sperm motility; sperm morphology: percentage of normal sperm morphology assessed with Papanicolaou staining; sperm vitality: percentage of viable sperm; sperm apoptosis: percentage of sperm apoptosis assessed by transmission electron microscopy; sperm necrosis: percentage of sperm necrosis assessed by transmission electron microscopy; sperm immaturity: percentage of sperm immaturity assessed by transmission electron microscopy; fertility index: the number of sperm probably devoid of defects assessed by transmission electron microscopy; F₂-IsoPs: F₂-isoprostane seminal levels (ng/ml); cPLA₂: phospholipase seminal levels (ng/ml); EPA: eicosapentaenoic acid; A: sperm apoptosis; ARA: arachidonic acid; N: sperm necrosis; SFAs: saturated fatty acids; MUFAs: monounsaturated fatty acids; n-3: sum of omega 3 FAs; n-6: sum of omega 6 FAs. All FA amounts were reported as relative percentage concentration (%).