Nutraceutical administration targeting energy metabolism and antioxidant defences improves spermiogram and biochemical quality of seminal plasma of infertile males in a pilot study

Pre- and post-intervention spermiogram analysis and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) profiling of fat- and water-soluble seminal plasma (SP) metabolites were performed in 26 infertile men treated for 60 days with vitamin E + CoQ10 (intervention 1 on n = 6 participants with predominant fat-soluble compound alterations), vitamin E + CoQ10 + B-complex vitamins + vitamin C (intervention 2 on n = 12 participants with combined fat- and water-soluble compound alterations) and B-complex vitamins + vitamin C (intervention 3 on n = 8 participants with predominant water-soluble compound alterations). Intervention 1 improved only SP vitamin E levels, intervention 2 improved spermiogram, an index cumulating all metabolic SP alterations named biomarker score (BS) and fat- and water-soluble SP metabolites, intervention 3 improved spermiogram, BS and several water-soluble SP metabolites. In conclusion, personalised nutraceutical supplementations, administered on the basis of SP metabolic profile alterations, may improve semen quality of infertile males.