[Traditional Chinese therapy of tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation reduces sperm DNA damage and improves natural pregnancy in infertile males].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of the traditional Chinese therapy of tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation (TKIB) on male infertility. METHODS: Forty-two infertile males with abnormal DNA fragmentation index (DFI) were randomly allocated into a TKIB (n = 22) and a control group (n = 20), the former treated by TKIB with an oral Chinese medicinal prescription while the latter with oral tamoxifen tablets and vitamin E capsules, both for 3 months. Before and after treatment, we obtained the semen parameters and sperm DFI from the patients and followed them up for the outcomes of natural pregnancy. RESULTS: Compared with the baseline, the patients in both the TKIB and control groups showed significant increases after medication in sperm concentration (ï¼»36.82 ± 29.16ï¼½ and ï¼»34.56 ± 37.03ï¼½ vs ï¼»50.00 ± 39.16ï¼½ and ï¼»40.72 ± 47.37ï¼½ ×106/ml, P<0.05), the percentage of progressively motile sperm (PMS) (ï¼»20.62 ± 9.10ï¼½% and ï¼»21.25 ± 9.11ï¼½% vs ï¼»36.82 ± 13.45ï¼½% and ï¼»26.18 ± 10.60ï¼½%, P<0.05) and the percentage of morphologically normal sperm (MNS) (ï¼»1.28 ± 1.00ï¼½% and ï¼»1.48 ± 0.91ï¼½% vs ï¼»3.44 ± 1.33ï¼½% and ï¼»2.57 ± 1.32ï¼½%, P<0.05), but remarkably decreased sperm DFI (ï¼»29.07 ± 11.52ï¼½% and ï¼»24.43 ± 8.46ï¼½% vs ï¼»15.51 ± 11.31ï¼½% and ï¼»18.53 ± 10.44ï¼½%, P<0.05). The patients of the TKIB group exhibited an even higher total sperm motility and percentages of PMS and MNS than those of the control group (P<0.05) but no statistically significant difference from the latter in sperm concentration or DFI (P>0.05). Besides, the former achieved higher rates of natural pregnancy (18.2%) and live birth (18.2%) than the controls (15% and 10%) though neither with statistically significant difference (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The traditional Chinese therapy of tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation can reduce sperm DNA damage and improve the outcomes of natural pregnancy in infertile men.