Author(s): Sreyashi Mitra, Rinku Saha, Sayantan Bhattacharyya, Kushal K Kar, Alex Verghese, Manabendra Dutta Choudhury, Parag Nandi, Shubhadeep Roychoudhury and Nabendu Murmu
Background: Emerging worldwide evidences in support of adverse effects of cannabis smoke indicate its significant role in declining male fertility. The aim of the present study was to compare the percentage of damaged sperm cells and the expression profiles of cell survival protein p-Akt and pro-apoptotic protein Bax in non-smoker, tobacco smoke addicted and cannabis smoke addicted subfertile subjects. Method: Semen samples were collected from 80 male subjects of reproductive age group in Southern Assam of North-East India. 46 (57.5%), 25 (31.25 %) and 9 (11.325%) of these subjects were found to be cigarette smokers, cannabis smokers and non-smokers respectively. ROS levels in semen samples were measured by chemiluminescence assay. Sperm DNA integrity were assessed by acridine orange test, toluidine blue staining and TUNEL assay. Expression profiles of p-Akt and Bax were observed by flow cytometry and western blot analysis.
Results: Among three groups, the cannabis smoke addicted subjects showed the highest level of seminal ROS production along with the highest percentage of sperm DNA damage, chromatin abnormalities and apoptotic cells. High expression of Bax and low expression of p-Akt was observed in non-smoker and tobacco smoke addicted subjects. Conversely, cannabis smoke addicted group showed the highest expression of both p-Akt and Bax proteins.
Conclusion: The present study indicates cannabis smoke addiction to be more detrimental for male reproductive health compared to the tobacco smoke. The over-expression of both Akt and Bax proteins among cannabis smokers suggest that the up-regulation of pro-survival protein Akt, during sperm meiotic division could have triggered the oxidative apoptosis of sperm cells via the up-regulation of pro-apoptotic protein Bax.
