Serum and Seminal plasma Monosodium glutamate levels and BMI in infertile men
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58564/AIMCJ3.2.2026.243Keywords:
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), Body Mass Index (BMI)., Malondialdehyde (MDA)Abstract
Excessive consumption of monosodium glutamate (MSG), a widely used food additive. Increased body mass index (BMI) is associated with metabolic disturbances, hormonal imbalance, and oxidative stress, all of which may adversely affect male reproductive function and increase the risk of infertility.
The study aims to investigate the association between Body Mass Index (BMI) and monosodium glutamate (MSG) concentrations in serum and seminal plasma, and to assess their correlations with semen parameters and reproductive hormones in infertile men.
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 75 infertile Iraqi men (mean age 30.4 ± 5.7 years; mean BMI 28.5 ± 5.0 kg/m²). Participants were classified by BMI (normal, overweight, obese). Semen analysis followed WHO guidelines. Serum and seminal MSG were measured, and seminal malondialdehyde MDA as an oxidative stress marker by ELISA, while serum testosterone, FSH, and prolactin were assessed using Mini-VIDAS.
A tendency toward an inverse relationship between Serum glutamate and obese participants was noted, but this did not achieve statistical significance (p=0.056).
A significant negative correlation was found between semen volume and serum glutamate levels (r = −0.22, p < 0.05), as well as between immotile sperm percentage and seminal MDA levels (r = −0.32, p < 0.05). Hormonal analysis revealed no statistically significant associations between BMI and testosterone, FSH, or prolactin levels; however, a non-significant increasing trend in FSH levels was observed in obese men.
Oxidative stress was mainly associated with sperm immotility, while serum glutamate showed a weak inverse association with semen volume and tended to be inversely related to obesity
References
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Mina Ismail, Rana R. Al-Saadi, Ula Al-Kawaz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Al-Iraqia Medical College Journal uses a Creative Commons Attribution (4.0 international license) and its license of (CC Attribution 4.0.). This license allows the authors to hold ownership of the copyright of their articles. However, it allows users to download, print, and extract. Reuse, archive, and disseminate the article as long as the authors get the appropriate credit and the source of the work. The license also ensures that the published articles will be available as widely as possible and can be located in any scientific archives CC Attribution 4.0
