Role of Infection and Leukocytes in Male Infertility

Male infertility is considered as a multifactorial complex reproductive illness, and male urogenital infection and inflammation are crucial etiologies contributing up to 35% of all cases. Mostly triggered by sexually transmitted diseases and uropathogens, chronic manifestation of such infection may cause irreversible infertility in the male. Male urogenital infection involves bacterial, viral, protozoal, and fungal infections many of which remain asymptomatic most of the time and are passed to the sexual partner leading to fertilization failure, pregnancy loss, and even development of illness in the offspring. The abundance of leukocytes in semen can be used as an indicator of urogenital infection. Its contribution in male infertility can be as high as 30% and the clinical condition is referred to as leukocytospermia. Seminal bacterial load together with increased leukocytes contribute to the impairment of male fertility parameters such as, sperm motility, DNA integrity, acrosome reaction, and damage sperm molecular structure. Pathophysiology of bacteriospermia-induced impairment of male infertility is probably mediated by the involvement of bacterial pathogens in the intrinsic apoptotic pathway resulting in sperm death, whereas that of seminal leukocytes operates through excessive generation of ROS. Although the application of antibiotics forms the frontline therapeutic approach, the growing resistance to antibiotics poses a concern in the management of microbes-induced male urogenital infection. Complementary and alternative medicine may offer additional management options in combating such infections. On the other hand, both broad spectrum antibiotics and antioxidant therapy have showed promising results in the management of infertile men with leukocytospermia. Use of herbal medicine may also play a promising role in the management of such patients. However, recent molecular biology techniques have noted the association of elevated levels of IL-8 with both the Chlamydial infection of the male urogenital tract as well as the clinical condition of leukocytospermia. On the basis of such common pathogenesis, further research involving advanced molecular techniques may pave the way towards the development of better diagnostic tools in the clinical management of male urogenital infection and leukocytospermia.