Comparative study of antiinflammatory drugs and sulphasalazine in relation to prostaglandin E and 19 hydroxylated prostaglandin E levels and human male fertility.

The effect of lysine salicylate, flurbiprofen and sulphasalazine on human seminal prostaglandin profiles of six normal individuals was studied. All of them were treated with pharmacological doses of the three agents for four days with rest periods of eighteen days in between. Sulphasalazine produced less prostaglandin (PG) inhibition relative to the other two antiinflammatory drugs but in contrast only sulphasalazine induced sperm changes. Infertility status associated with the ingestion of therapeutic levels of sulphasalaziane is not directly related to the endogenous PGEs and 19-OH PGEs, the major prostanoids in human semen. PG determinations were carried out using gas chromatographic (GC) techniques.