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Evaluation of sperm DNA fragmentation and chromatin structure in infertile men with immotile short‐tail sperm defect
Author(s) -
Atshan Marzieh,
Kakavand Kianoosh,
Hosseini Seyedeh Hanieh,
Sadighi Gilani Mohammad Ali,
Mohseni Meybodi Anahita,
Sabbaghian Marjan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
andrologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1439-0272
pISSN - 0303-4569
DOI - 10.1111/and.13445
Subject(s) - dna fragmentation , chromomycin a3 , sperm , andrology , chromatin , male infertility , biology , semen , semen analysis , tunel assay , spermatogenesis , infertility , dna , genetics , apoptosis , medicine , heterochromatin , programmed cell death , pregnancy
Teratozoospermia is characterised by the presence of spermatozoa with abnormal morphology. One of the morphological disorders that lead to male infertility is immotile short‐tail sperm (ISTS) defect. In this study, we evaluated the levels of chromatin packing and DNA fragmentation in patients with immotile short‐tail sperm defect. Semen samples were obtained from 31 infertile men with ISTS as case group and 31 normozoospermic men as a control group. Protamine status was evaluated using chromomycin A3 (CMA3) staining and sperm DNA fragmentation assessed by sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase‐mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate biotin nick‐end labelling (TUNEL). The percentage of positive CMA3 spermatozoa was significantly higher in patients’ samples (22.6 ± 6.9) compared with controls (16.3 ± 4.2) ( p < .05) and also mean (± SD ) of sperm DNA fragmentation was significantly higher in patients compared with controls, as measured by TUNEL assay (10.45 ± 4.60 vs. 7.03 ± 2.86, p < .05) and SCSA (24.80 ± 13.1 vs. 15.2 ± 7.2, p < .05). According to our study, sperm DNA fragmentation and chromatin packing abnormality are significantly higher in the ISTS samples compared with normal samples. A possible explanation for this relationship is that sperm chromatin condensation and sperm flagellum formation occur during the same phase of spermatogenesis.