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| DHA in 3D. |
The good news for men who have low fertility rates. Docosahexaenoic acid called DHA, which has been instrumental in the development of the eye and brain, also affect male fertility.
The study is using the rat as a sample. DHA is an omega-3 fatty acids were able to alter sperm abnormalities, from the original round-headed sperm swimmers to excel with a conical head.
Since three years ago, Manabu Nakamura, a researcher from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, examined knockout mice are not able to make their own DHA. "I and my colleagues to know why DHA is essential for healthy sperm," he said as written in the journal Biology of Reproduction.
Like the other Omega-3 acid, DHA found in fish, especially cold water fish and marine green algae. For prospective fathers who are not fond of eating fish, seafood and green algae is not the only source of DHA. The human body can form DHA from omega-3 fatty acids other.
In a previous study, Nakamura studied mice lacking the enzyme DHA maker. From that research they found that if rats did not receive DHA from food intake, the males will be sterile. "Fertility will return if they were given food containing DHA," he said.
Happenings on these findings, the research team studied mice sperm development in DHA deficiency conditions. It turned out that DHA plays an important role in the formation of the acrosome at the tip of the sperm head. Acrosome is an organelle containing enzymes tapered structure and help the sperm penetrate the outer wall of the egg cell, thus allowing the sperm to fertilize the egg.
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| Scientists find how important an omega-3 fatty acid is to sperm formation. Understanding how this nutrition supplement, commonly found in seafood, plays a role in male fertility could lead to fertility treatments and maybe even a male birth control pill. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/) |
Nakamura said the lack of DHA in humans and other mammals is actually not uncommon. Therefore, humans and mammals have the ability to make their own DHA from another fatty acid.
However, DHA-forming enzyme damage can cause infertility. Blood with a low content of DHA effect on fertility rates decline. Intake of foods rich in DHA can solve this problem of infertility.
"As long as the system in the body working properly, people can make DHA in their bodies as long as it has a precursor," said Nakamura. "But some groups of people may experience a reduced ability to synthesize DHA.
In the long run, the acrosome can be a target for male birth control pills, if its formation can be switched or discontinued. "But researchers have not studied it," he said. *** [LIVESCIENCE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 3769]
