title: Survey of carnitine content of human semen using a semiquantitative auxanographic method: decreased semen total carnitine concentration in patients with azoospermia or severe oligozoospermia.
abstract: A microbiological method, using the carnitine-requiring yeast, Torulopsis bovina ATCC 26014, was developed to identify samples of human semen which contained low levels (less than 250 micron M) of total carnitine. Of 399 semen samples from a male infertility clinic which were tested, 30 (7.5%) were low in carnitine. Of these, 14 were azoospermic and 16 were severely oligozoospermic. Some azoospermic samples (19 = 58%) and severely oligozoospermic samples (51 = 79%) did not give evidence of low carnitine concentrations. These results indicate that decreased total carnitine concentration in semen occurs in certain classes of azoospermic and severely oligozoospermic patients.
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D002175:Candida / Q000378:metabolism; D002331:Carnitine / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009845:Oligospermia / Q000378:metabolism*; D012661:Semen / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D002331:Carnitine