Cohen DR et al. (2004) Sperm motility in men with spinal cord injuries is enhanced by inactivating cytokines in the seminal plasma. J Androl 25: 922–925

Spinal cord injury (SCI) not only causes problems with sexual function but also affects the characteristics of the patient's sperm; men with SCI are more likely to have high sperm concentrations and sperm motility tends to be lower. Seminal plasma from men with SCI has been shown to reduce sperm motility in samples from normal men, and sperm collected from the vas deferens of SCI patients has higher motility than sperm collected from their ejaculates. These findings indicate that factors in the seminal plasma itself are at least partly responsible for the reduced sperm motility in SCI. Indeed, studies have shown high levels of certain inflammatory cytokines in the seminal plasma of SCI patients.

These observations prompted Cohen et al. to investigate whether inactivation of three cytokines—interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1-β and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α—might restore sperm motility. In their recent study, the authors collected semen from 17 men with SCI and added monoclonal antibodies to IL-6, IL-1-β and TNF-α. After 1.0 to 1.5 hours incubation at room temperature, mean sperm motility in the treated samples was higher than that of the untreated samples. This difference was statistically significant for samples that had been exposed to all three monoclonal antibodies at once (mean sperm motility 36.0% ± 4.0% versus 21.2% ± 4.0%, P <0.01). The degree of improvement varied according to the pre-treatment sperm motility of the samples.

The authors note that this is the first example of a treatment for low sperm motility in this patient group.