Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Detecting Dna Oxidation In Sperm, Alexie Zwerdling

Student Research Symposium

Declining body-wide levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) that are present in normal aging men are linked to decreased sperm quality and DNA integrity. When NAD is low, the amount of oxidative stress on the DNA appears to be increased, due to the limited regeneration of the antioxidant glutathione, which is NAD-dependent. We therefore hypothesize that the increased sperm DNA damage in the aging male is caused by an elevated formation of 8-oxoguanine in the DNA, caused by increased oxidative stress when NAD levels are low. To test this hypothesis, a transgenic mouse model (ANDY mouse) was used to create …