Open AccessSimultaneous Morphology, Motility, and Fragmentation Analysis of Live Individual Sperm Cells for Male Fertility Evaluation
Author(s) -
Ben-Yehuda Keren,
Mirsky Simcha K.,
Levi Mattan,
Barnea Itay,
Meshulach Inbal,
Kontente Sapir,
Benvaish Daniel,
Cur-Cycowicz Rachel,
Nygate Yoav N.,
Shaked Natan T.
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
advanced intelligent systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2640-4567
DOI - 10.1002/aisy.202100200
Subject(s) - dna fragmentation , motility , sperm , staining , sperm motility , stain , fragmentation (computing) , fertility , biology , male infertility , infertility , andrology , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , medicine , population , programmed cell death , apoptosis , ecology , pregnancy , environmental health
A new technique for sperm analysis is presented, measuring DNA fragmentation, morphology with virtual staining, and motility, all three criteria on the same individual unstained live cell. The method relies on quantitative stain‐free interferometric imaging, providing unique topographic structural and content maps of the cell, becoming available for the first time for clinical use, together with deep‐learning frameworks and least‐squares linear approximation. In the common clinical practice, only motility evaluation can be carried out on live human cells, while full morphological evaluation and DNA fragmentation assays require different staining protocols, and therefore cannot be performed on the same cell, resulting in inconsistencies in fertility evaluation. A clinic‐ready interferometric module is used to acquire dynamic sperm cells without chemical staining, together with deep learning to evaluate all three scores per cell with accuracy of 93.1%, 88%, and 90% for morphology, motility, and DNA fragmentation, respectively. It is shown that the expected number of cells that pass all three criteria based on the current evaluations performed separately does not correspond with the number of cells that pass all criteria, demonstrating the importance of the suggested method. The proposed stain‐free evaluation method is expected to decrease uncertainty in infertility diagnosis, increasing treatment success rates.