The Protective Effects of N-Acetylcysteine on Exogenous Hydrogen Peroxide and Endogenous Superoxide Anion-induced DNA Strand Breakage in Human Spermatozoa

Objective To explore the protective effects of N Acetylcysteine (NAC) on exogenous hydrogen peroxide and endogenous superoxide anion induced DNA strand breakage in human spermatozoa by using the single cell gel electropherosis (SCGE) Methods Sperm cells were exposed to 0.5 mmol/L of H 2O 2 or 5.0 mmol/L of β NADPH with or without 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 mmol/L of NAC. The percentage of sperm comet cells and the comet tail lengths were measured in the treated sperm cells by using SCGE. Results Both percentage of comet sperm nuclei and mean tail length in sperm cells exposed to 0.5 mmol/L hydrogen peroxide with different concentrations of NAC decrease significantly in a dose dependent manner as compared with sperm cells exposed to H 2O 2 without NAC or catalase. Although mean tail length in sperm cells exposed to 5.0 mmol/L of β NADPH with different concentrations of NAC decreases significantly compared with sperm cells exposed to β NADPH without NAC or SOD, there were no significant differences on the percentage of sperm comet cells between sperm cells exposed to 5.0 mmol/L of β NADPH with different concentrations of NAC and sperm cells exposed to 5.0 mmol/L of β NADPH without NAC. Conclusion NAC has a protective effect on exogenous hydrogen peroxide induced DNA damage, while protective effect of NAC against O - 2 induced DNA strand breakage is significant but very weak.