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[Traditional Chinese therapy of tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation reduces sperm DNA damage and improves natural pregnancy in infertile males].

Objective
To study the effect of the traditional Chinese therapy of tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation (TKIB) on male infertility.


METHODS
Forty-two infertile males with abnormal DNA fragmentation index (DFI) were randomly allocated into a TKIB (n = 22) and a control group (n = 20), the former treated by TKIB with an oral Chinese medicinal prescription while the latter with oral tamoxifen tablets and vitamin E capsules, both for 3 months. Before and after treatment, we obtained the semen parameters and sperm DFI from the patients and followed them up for the outcomes of natural pregnancy.


RESULTS
Compared with the baseline, the patients in both the TKIB and control groups showed significant increases after medication in sperm concentration (［36.82 ± 29.16］ and ［34.56 ± 37.03］ vs ［50.00 ± 39.16］ and ［40.72 ± 47.37］ ×10⁶/ml, P<0.05), the percentage of progressively motile sperm (PMS) (［20.62 ± 9.10］% and ［21.25 ± 9.11］% vs ［36.82 ± 13.45］% and ［26.18 ± 10.60］%, P<0.05) and the percentage of morphologically normal sperm (MNS) (［1.28 ± 1.00］% and ［1.48 ± 0.91］% vs ［3.44 ± 1.33］% and ［2.57 ± 1.32］%, P<0.05), but remarkably decreased sperm DFI (［29.07 ± 11.52］% and ［24.43 ± 8.46］% vs ［15.51 ± 11.31］% and ［18.53 ± 10.44］%, P<0.05). The patients of the TKIB group exhibited an even higher total sperm motility and percentages of PMS and MNS than those of the control group (P<0.05) but no statistically significant difference from the latter in sperm concentration or DFI (P>0.05). Besides, the former achieved higher rates of natural pregnancy (18.2%) and live birth (18.2%) than the controls (15% and 10%) though neither with statistically significant difference (P>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The traditional Chinese therapy of tonifying the kidney and invigorating blood circulation can reduce sperm DNA damage and improve the outcomes of natural pregnancy in infertile men.