Male infertility - a new scientific way to increase sperm count

Posted at Aug. 20, 2022, 8:36 p.m.

If you have diabetes and you want to have children, you probably already know that Spermatogenic dysfunction is one of the major secondary complications of diabetes. Which means that if you have diabetes it will reduce the quality of your sperm. The problem here is that the underlying mechanisms remain mostly unknown, and there is no available drug or strategy for the radical treatment of diabetic spermatogenic dysfunction. Until now, maybe there is hope, because in a mice study NMN seems to restore and increase the quality of the sperm.

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder and is a group of diseases that affect how the body uses blood (glucose). Glucose is an important source of fuel for the cells that make up your muscles and tissues. According to the reports of International Diabetes Federation, the number of diabetic patients will increase to 693 million in 2045, accounting for about 10% of the world’s population.

And epidemiological studies showed that about 50% of diabetic patients suffer from different degrees of reproductive diseases, such as decreased libido and impotence. Also, diabetes can impair spermatogenesis, destroy testicular tissue structure, and reduce sperm quality, leading to infertility.

It happens to be that in the testes, glucose metabolism is crucial for spermatogenesis.

It is also known that Sperm cells need lactate to function properly and with diabetes it is this lactate produced by the Sertoli cells that are not functioning properly. Resulting in glycogen accumulation. This metabolic pathway is part of the Glycolisis and it is believed that abnormal glycolysis is causing spermatogenic disorder in diabetes.

For researchers it made total total sense to try and restore the the glycolysis. Which would indirectly also increase sperm quality. Since the Glycolisis pathway is highly involved in energy production gues which molecule is needed in producing the energy to kick start the metabolic pathway glycolysis…. NMN.

Just screaming NMN is actually an oversimplification, because NMN is the precursor of NAD+ and it is the NAD+ that actually provides the energy needed for the glycolysis. But to keep it simple NMN helps energies the glycolysis.

So now it makes even more sense for researchers to look at NMN and see what it can do to restore or improve the quality of Sperm cells. First of all NMN also known as Nicotinamide mononucleotide. Is a molecule found in all your cells and also found in very small quantities in vegetables, fruits and meat.

Furthermore multiple studies on mice and humans have shown that Systemic NMN administration effectively enhances NAD+ levels in various peripheral tissues, including the liver, kidney, and testis.

In a Human clinical study it has already been shown that NMN positively impact insulin sensitivity.

A research group from china lead by Duo Ma finally decided to go for an experiment, they made a speculation that NMN the precursor of NAD plays an important role in glycolysis, and they all knew that the creation of lactate uses up energy provided by NAD. Therefore, they speculate that NMN may improve the spermatogenic dysfunction in diabetes by regulating the glycolysis pathway.

So they bought a few mice and created 3 groups the first group was the control group and the second group of mouse received an injection to destroy pancreatic B cells and cause insulin resistance, thus inducing diabetes. The third group also received an injection to induce diabetic but this group also received NMN supplementation. After 8 weeks of treatment they looked at the testis and the sperm quality.

They did a few tests on the testicular tissue like Immuno histochemical analysis, PCR, Western blot analysis and looked at body weight, testis weight, sperm number, and sperm abnormality.

And what they found was quit interesting

In body weight they found that the NMN treated diabetic had increased body weight compared to the diabetic group. They also found that testicular weight increased in NMN treated diabetic compared with the diabetic group.

And most importantly they found that in the diabetic group the sperm quality decreased and when compared to the NMN administered diabetic group the quality most fascinatingly increased. Which suggest that NMN treatment significantly increased sperm numbers of the diabetic mice and decreased the rate of sperm deformity, which enhanced the reproductive potential of diabetic mice

Although numerous medications are available for the treatment of diabetes, various side effects limit their use in clinical practice for diabetic complications. For instance, metformin, a common drug for diabetes, has side effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal reactions. Therefore, it is quit important to find effective drugs on diabetic spermatogenesis disorders.

And NMN seems to tick a that box. Since NMN has proven to be safe in most resent human clinical trails it probably makes sense to give it a try and take NMN supplementation. But I am biologist not a physician so please advice your medical doctor before taking NMN.

But If you have diabetes and already tried NMN from Cellulim or another brand please share you experience in the comments below. Maybe your experience can help someone els looking for a solution to this problem.

That is it for now, by the way we also have a give away, and all you have to do is, send us an email (info@cellulim.com). And you will be contacted with instructions how to receive the free bottle with high quality NMN.

Thanks for reading and start living again

Article:

Ma, D., Hu, L., Wang, J., Luo, M., Liang, A., Lei, X., ... & Liao, X. (2022). Nicotinamide mononucleotide improves spermatogenic function in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice via modulating the glycolysis pathway. Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica.