In recent years, the quality of human sperm and its fertility potential have decreased dramatically. This may suggest that the quality of semen has deteriorated partly due to the effects of increasing toxic factors in the environment. Infertility remains a major problem in society, and recent data show that as many as one in four couples is trying to solve the problem. Male infertility accounts for 40% of infertility cases. Many environmental agents such as tobacco smoke and nicotine and genetic factors have been implicated in the poor sperm function and resultant infertility. The article is a review of the impacts of nicotine on human fertility potential. According to our results, nicotine is proved to be a potent pro-oxidant to the biological samples like spermatozoa population and is able to alter the fertility potential of man by inducing the membrane impairments, altering the GSH metabolism cycle, changing the sperm morphology and motility, and also inducing the DNA fragmentation. Antioxidant supplementation could reverse partially the negative effect of nicotine on sperm functions. However, further studies are necessary to illuminate the other dark sides of nicotinic infertility in human spermatozoa.
DNA Damage ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Fertility ; drug effects ; Glutathione ; metabolism ; Glutathione Peroxidase ; metabolism ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; chemically induced ; Lipid Peroxidation ; drug effects ; Male ; Nicotine ; adverse effects ; Sperm Motility ; drug effects ; Spermatozoa ; drug effects ; metabolism