Nanostructured lipid carriers for L-carnitine delivery: physicochemical characterization and effects on asthenozoospermic sperm function in vitro
Moghadam AM., Fathi-Karkan S., Sabz FTK., Shariatnia S.
Laboratory Study, published in Sci Rep (2025) — summary generated from the PubMed abstract.
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
- Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
- Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
- Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
- Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
- Emerging · Emerging topic under active research
This page is generated from the PubMed record. The Thai description is an automated summary of bibliographic fields and the abstract, not a full translation, and is not medical advice.
- Study type
- Laboratory Study
- Journal
- Sci Rep (2025)
- Reported sample size
- —
- Source database
- Europe PMC
- PMID
- 41413257
- PMCID
- PMC12835142
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41598-025-33229-7
Abstract (original English)
Asthenozoospermia, driven by oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, impairs sperm motility and contributes to male infertility. Oral L-carnitine (LC) improves sperm parameters clinically, yet its extreme hydrophilicity severely restricts transmembrane delivery into spermatozoa. However, it remains unknown whether lipid nanocarriers can overcome this previously elusive uptake barrier and augment L-carnitine bioactivity. Here we developed L-carnitine-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC-LC) and determined their capacity to enhance delivery and functional outcomes in human asthenozoospermic spermatozoa. NLC-LC (size 144 ± 3 nm, zeta - 38.6 ± 1.4 mV, encapsulation efficiency 56 ± 2%) were incubated for 1 h at 0.5 mg/mL LC equivalent with density-gradient-purified spermatozoa from 25 asthenozoospermic men alongside free LC, blank NLC, and untreated controls. NLC-LC demonstrated approximately 34% higher DPPH radical-scavenging activity than free L-carnitine in an acellular assay (47.7 ± 1.1% vs. 35.7 ± 0.9%; P 0.05). NLC-LC showed numerically higher viability, lower DNA fragmentation, and higher mitochondrial membrane potential than free LC, but none of these differences reached statistical significance. NLC-LC significantly enhanced antioxidant capacity in the DPPH assay and showed superior numerical performance across all assessed sperm function parameters, although m
What this study does not prove
- • This study does not prove SVF is an approved treatment or a replacement for standard care.
- • This is preclinical work; animal or laboratory results cannot be applied to humans.
Evidence level
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
How we grade evidenceBrowse all related research
Filter the research library by this study's title keywords, author, or publication year.