At this point in the semester, we're all quite familiar with the effects that stress has on human reproduction. However, a recent study from the University of Colorado - Anschutz Medical Campus brings about a groundbreaking revelation - an increase in sperm motility after experiencing significant stress, improving sperm performance.
Over the last five decades, environmental stressors have coincided with a notable decline in semen quality. The crux of this new research identifies how stress affects the ability of sperm to move through a female’s reproductive system to fertilize an egg, or the sperm's motility. Using a repeated sampling human cohort study, the research group identified a significant effect of prior perceived stress to increase sperm motility 2-3 months following stress, timing that expands upon their previous studies which revealed significant stress-associated changes in sperm RNA important for fertility. The group also observed changes in extracellular vesicles (EVs), small particles released from the male reproductive tract that play a role in sperm development and maturation. These changes occurred after the stressor had passed, not during the stress experience.
Studies were conducted in both human male and in animal models. In both cases, the stress-induced EVs enhanced sperm motility and mitochondrial respiration, the chemical energy needed to power the cell’s biochemical reactions.
Since the results were the same in both human and in animal models, the findings suggest that this could be a universal coping mechanism across species, which might offer insights into broader reproductive health implications. Indeed, it may be evolutionarily beneficial, potentially providing an opportunity to increase birth rates after a community-wide stressful event occurs.
After reading this article, I'm personally curious to know how stress information is passed into the EVs, if there's a stress threshold that affects this, and if there's a similar beneficial function in females!
tl;dr: stress affects sperm motility after the fact!
Article: Moon, N., Morgan, C.P., Marx-Rattner, R. et al. Stress increases sperm respiration and motility in mice and men. Nat Commun 15, 7900 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52319-0
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