Male obesity is associated with sperm telomere shortening and aberrant mRNA expression of autophagy-related genes

Table 2 Comparison of male age, body mass index, and sperm parameters between study groups

Parameters	Normal-weight (n = 32)	Group with obesity (n = 32)	p-value
Age (year)	37.63 ± 0.6201	37.72 ± 0.6901	0.9198
BMI (kg/m²)	22.87 ± 0.2714	31.36 ± 0.1726^a	< 0.0001^****
Semen volume (ml)	2.869 ± 0.1707	2.294 ± 0.1166^a	0.0074^**
Sperm concentration (10⁶/ml)	57.25 ± 2.301	60.59 ± 1.911	0.2680
Total sperm count (10⁶/ejaculate)	162.3 ± 9.632	137.4 ± 6.957^a	0.0407^*
Progressive motility (%)	44.44 ± 1.140	40.47 ± 1.511^a	0.0405^*
Non-progressive motility (%)	11.31 ± 0.7162	13.19 ± 0.7049	0.0668
Total motility (%)	55.75 ± 1.261	53.66 ± 1.424	0.2753
Normal morphology (%)	10.38 ± 0.8762	9.391 ± 0.9250	0.4427

All data are presented as Mean ± SEM. The independent sample t-test with Welch’s correction was conducted for the assessment of differences between the study groups. *P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001, and **** P < 0.0001
In the group with obesity, only the mean values of semen volume, total sperm count, and progressive motility were significantly lower than in the normal-weight group (p = 0.0074, 0.0407, and 0.0405, respectively)
a Represents a significant difference between the groups with obesity and the normal-weight group
Abbreviations: BMI Body Mass Index

ISSN: 2051-4190