Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) has recently been evaluated as a marker for follicle reserve and as a new marker for ovarian function in women. In the male, it is produced in Sertoli cells (SC) in the testis. We evaluated serum levels of AMH as a marker of SC function and male fertility by comparing normo- and oligozoospermic men.

Materials and methods: Serum levels of AMH were determined by enzyme immunoassay in two groups of men with normal (n=105) and reduced (n=79) sperm concentration (above or below 20×10⁶/ml). These data were retrieved from the institute’s database Androbase^©.

Results: Significant differences (P<0.001) between the two groups were observed in sperm concentration (58.6±37.9 in normo- vs. 9.1±10.6×10⁶/ml in oligozoospermic, mean±S.D.) and count (202.6±147.4 vs. 33.8±40.2×10⁶) as well as in the percentage of progressively motile sperm (50.6±7.0% vs. 40.8±13.9%), percentage of normal morphology (12.3±5.1% vs. 7.2±4.7%) and testicular volume (55.8±14.6 ml vs. 44.0±13.8 ml), which were all lower in the oligozoospermic men as expected. Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) was higher in this group (4.1±3.0 U/l vs. 7.0±7.2 U/l), AMH showed a trend towards lower levels (7.7±4.8 ng/ml vs. 6.7±4.8 ng/ml, P=0.06), but neither LH (3.6±1.9 U/l vs. 4.0±2.2 U/l) nor testosterone (T, 15.2±5.1 nmol/l vs. 14.2±4.3 nmol/l) was different between the groups. We found a significant (P<0.01) negative correlation between AMH and FSH (r=−0.48), and relatively weak positive correlations with sperm concentration/count (r=0.44 and 0.39) and sperm motility (r=0.35). By contrast, in the normozoospermic men AMH correlated only very weakly with T and free T (P<0.05, r=0.21 and 0.22) but with no other hormone or semen parameters.

Conclusions: In contrast to normozoospermic men, AMH correlates with FSH and sperm parameters in oligozoospermic men and might serve as a new marker for reduced SC function.