From Hypoxia to Oxidative Stress: Antioxidants' Role to Reduce Male Reproductive Damage

Hypoxia is one of the main reasons causing male reproductive damage for people living in high altitude. Pathological evidences have been presented both in humans and animal models. Spermatogenesis disruption, worse sperm parameters, hormone disorder and erectile dysfunction are emblematic of male reproductive impairments brought by hypoxia. Among many mechanisms impairing male reproductive systems, oxidative stress is always a field of interest to explore. Although previous reviews have discussed about hypoxia or oxidative stress and antioxidants on male fertility respectively, no one has elucidated the concrete role of oxidative stress in hypoxia and correlating antioxidants that can ameliorate the negative effects. In this review, we firstly introduce hypoxia etiology and describe specific damage of hypoxia on male reproductive functions. Then, we emphasized interplays between hypoxia and oxidative stress as well as negative influences brought by oxidative stress. Finally, we listed antioxidants for oxidative stress and hypoxia-induced reproductive damage and discussed their controversial experimental effects for male infertility.