Melbourne: Dietary antioxidants can boost male fertility - at least in crickets, say scientists.
A new study by the University of Western Australia and Monash University has found a combination of antioxidants can provide the best weapon to boost the health of sperm in males, the 'Ecology Letters' journal reported.
Lead scientist Leigh Simmons said highly reactive molecules, known as free radicals, were waste products of the cellular processes that fuel the body's activities. "These free radicals damage cells if they are not neutralised by antioxidants," he said.
The scientists said sperm were known to be vulnerable to attack from free radicals, and the study has shown that the best defence against sperm damage was to take two antioxidants - Vitamin E and beta-carotene.
Simmons said for most animals, it was typical for females to have the sperm of several males inside them at any given time, competing for the fertilisation of the eggs.
"It is fair to say that the sperm are at war within the female, and we can expect that the most competitive sperm will win the race to the egg. Our study showed the sperm of males who were fed antioxidants were easily able to outclass the sperm of rival males who were deprived of antioxidants," he said.
Dr Damian Dowling, one of the scientists, said it has already been proved that antioxidants were important in maintaining sperm health.
"What we have done is provide a definitive experimental confirmation of this, not in a test tube, but in a real living animal, showing that antioxidants are profoundly important in deciding the outcomes of reproduction in males.
"That is to say, antioxidants in the diet equal more babies, at least in these crickets. And by working with crickets rather than humans as subjects, we're able to conduct the experiment under very strictly controlled conditions - ruling out other alternative explanations," he said.
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