Lactobacillus plantarum secretions may exert a cryoprotective effect on human sperm motility: a prospective in vitro study.

To the great of our knowledge, this is the first study showing that L. plantarum secretions had a cryoprotective effect on sperm motility when added to the sperm freezing medium. Furthermore, L. plantarum secretions were found to protect sperm DNA integrity more effectively than the freezing medium without L.plantarum secretions in non-normozoospermia group. Cryopreservation procedures must therefore be optimized to minimize any iatrogenically-induced sperm DNA damage, given the correlation between sperm DNA damage and increased mutation loads in progeny. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.