Background: Infertility is one of the most important problems that despairs couples in their social life. Globally, it impacts millions of people of reproductive age, including men and women. In general, male factor infertility takes part in approximately 50% of all cases of infertility. Oxidative stress may be implicated in 30–80% of male infertility etiology due to damaging sperm DNA and impairing sperm quality and function. According to the literature data, Khat consumption increases oxidative stress, however, showed a discrepant effect on sperm quality.  In this light, this study was conducted to assess and compare the levels of seminal ROS and TAC among 100 Yemeni men classified into infertile Khat chewers (25) and infertile non-Khat chewers (25) as case groups and fertile Khat chewers (25) and fertile non-Khat chewers (25) as control groups. It also aimed to evaluate the oxidative stress effect along with the Khat effect on sperm quality.

        Results: We found that MDA concentration was significantly higher in infertile non-Khat chewers and infertile Khat chewers (1.3, 1.11 nmol/ml respectively) compared with the fertile non-Khat chewers and fertile Khat chewers (1.0, 0.867 nmol/ml respectively, P < 0.01), while slightly lower TAC activity in infertile Khat and non-Khat chewers than in the fertile Khat and non-Khat chewers. MDA level was significantly lower while TAC level significantly higher in the overall Khat chewer group than in non-Khat chewer group. We also found Oxidative stress was significantly associated with impaired sperm quality, P <0.05, and that Khat chewing decreased only sperm concentration.

        Conclusions: We concluded, Oxidative stress is associated with male infertility and sperm quality gets badly affected by seminal oxidative stress. Khat does not increase seminal ROS level, however, it decreases sperm concentration. Seminal ROS and MDA levels can be utilized as a biomarker for male infertility.

KEYWORDS: Khat, Oxidative stress, Male infertility