Vet World Vol.17 April-2024 Article - 21
Research Article
Veterinary World, 17(4): 911-921
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.911-921
Impact of melatonin administration on sperm quality, steroid hormone levels, and testicular blood flow parameters in small ruminants: A meta-analysis
2Research Center for Animal Husbandry, National Research and Innovation Agency, Bogor, Indonesia.
3Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
4Research Center for Veterinary Science, National Research and Innovation Agency, Bogor, Indonesia.
5Research Center for Sustainable Production System and Life Cycle Assessment, National Research and Innovation Agency, Banten, Indonesia.
Background and Aim: The impact of exogenous melatonin on the sperm quality of small ruminants is controversial. Therefore, this study aimed to synthesize previous findings on the influence of melatonin injection on sperm quality, steroid hormones, and testicular blood flow in small ruminants.
Materials and Methods: Thirty studies were analyzed by computing the raw mean difference (RMD) as the effect size between the control and melatonin treatment groups, using the inverse of the variance for the random-effect model of the method of moments by DerSimonian and Laird. We assessed heterogeneity among studies using Q test. I2 statistic was used to classify the observed heterogeneity. We used Egger’s regression method to indicate publication bias.
Results: Melatonin injection (p < 0.05) affected sperm concentration (RMD = 0.42 × 109/mL), morphology (RMD = 2.82%), viability (RMD = 2.83%), acrosome integrity (RMD = 4.26%), and DNA integrity (RMD = 1.09%). Total motility (RMD = 5.62%), progressive motility (RMD = 7.90%), acrosome integrity (RMD = 8.68%), and DNA integrity (RMD = 2.01%) of post-thawed semen in the melatonin-treated group were also increased (p < 0.05). Similarly, treatment with melatonin (p < 0.05) enhanced total motility (RMD = 5.78%), progressive motility (RMD = 5.28%), curvilinear velocity (RMD = 4.09 μm/s), straight-line velocity (RMD = 5.61 μm/s), and average path velocity (RMD = 4.94 μm/s). Testosterone (RMD = 1.02 ng/mL) and estradiol 17-ß levels (RMD = 0.84 pg/mL) were elevated (p < 0.05) in the melatonin-injected group. Melatonin implantation ameliorated testicular blood flow, as indicated by a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in the resistive index (RMD = 0.11) and pulsatility index (RMD = –0.15).
Conclusion: Melatonin administration can increase the reproductive performance of small male ruminants.
Keywords: goat, implantation, melatonin, meta-analysis, reproduction, sheep.
How to cite this article: Budiyanto A, Hartanto S, Widayanti R, Kurnianto H, Wardi W, Haryanto B, Munir IM, Ibrahim A, and Ludfiani DD (2024) Impact of melatonin administration on sperm quality, steroid hormone levels, and testicular blood flow parameters in small ruminants: A meta-analysis, Veterinary World, 17(4): 911-921.
Received: 2024-01-02 Accepted: 2024-04-04 Published online: 2024-04-25
Corresponding author: E-mail:
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.911-921
Copyright: Budiyanto, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
