MedWire News: Coenzyme (Co)Q10 supplements improve sperm motility in infertile men with idiopathic asthenozoospermia, a small trial indicates.
Italian researchers randomly assigned 60 infertile men to receive 200 mg/day CoQ10 or placebo for 6 months.
Participants had sperm concentrations of more than 20 x 106/ml, sperm forward motility less than 50 percent, and normal sperm morphology of more than 30 percent. Overall, 28 CoQ10-treated patients and 27 placebo-treated patients completed the study.
Mean levels of CoQ10 and its reduced form ubiquinol increased significantly in seminal plasma and sperm cells after CoQ10, but not placebo, treatment.
Mean sperm cell total motility improved from 33.14 to 39.41 percent after 6 months of CoQ10 treatment, with mean forward mortality increasing from 10.43 to 15.11 percent, both statistically significant differences. There was no significant change in either measure with placebo.
Computer-assisted analysis confirmed significant improvements in sperm curvilinear and straight progressive velocity in CoQ10-treated patients. Of nine spontaneous pregnancies, six occurred in couples where men had received CoQ10.
Giancarlo Balercia (Umberto I Hospital, Ancona) and colleagues conclude: “The administration of CoQ10 may play a positive role in treatment of asthenozoospermia, probably related both to its involvement in the mitochondrial respiratory chain and to its antioxidant properties.”
MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009
Journal abstract
