Diabetes may affect male fertility

Diabetes may affect men's fertility by disrupting DNA in sperm, research has shown.

High levels of blood sugar caused by the disease appear to affect genetic repair mechanisms that keep sperm DNA stable. As a result fertility is highly likely to be compromised, said doctors.

Damaged sperm DNA is known to reduce embryo quality, make it more difficult for an embryo to implant into the womb, and lead to higher miscarriage rates. It is also associated with some serious childhood diseases, including cancers.

Scientists studied semen samples from eight men with insulin dependent, or type 1, diabetes. Under the microscope, their sperm looked completely normal. But genetic analysis told a very different story.

Study leader Dr Con Mallidis, from Queen's University, Belfast, said: "We have shown for the first time that diabetes adversely influences male fertility at a molecular level."

The research revealed significant changes to biological mechanisms that translate the genetic code.

In a process known as "transcription", a molecule called messenger RNA carries genetic instructions from gene DNA to protein-making machinery in the cells.

Dr Mallidis said: "Sperm RNA was significantly altered, and many of the changes we observed are in RNA transcripts involved in DNA repair. Diabetics have a significant decrease in their ability to repair sperm DNA, and once this is damaged it cannot be restored."

Errors in transcription cause errors in the ability of genes to make proteins.

The findings were presented on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (Eshre) in Barcelona.

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