The evaluation of sperm chromatin status in men with different infertility factors, and its relationship with ICSI outcomes

Abstract

One of the most important factors related to male fertility is sperm chromatin status. Under Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART), especially Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), the natural selection of high quality sperm with intact chromatin is not possible. Therefore, embryo quality and pregnancy rate decreased for damaged DNA of sperms involved in the fertilization of eggs. Thus, this study evaluated the frequency of abnormal sperm chromatin condensation and damaged sperm chromatin in men with different infertility factors (e.g. oligozoospermia, asthenozoospermia, teratozoospermia, oligasthenoteratozoospermia, and normozoospermia) and ICSI outcomes were examined. 195 patients were examined and the sperm chromatin status was evaluated using aniline blue and toluidine blue staining. Fertilization, zygote and embryo quality, chemical pregnancy and abortion rates were calculated, too. The results showed that in the oligoasthenoteratozzoospermia samples, the damaged chromatin percentage was higher than that in normozoospermia ones. The fertilization rate, embryo quality, and pregnancy rate significantly decreased in this group. Also, a higher abortion rate was observed in this group (P<0.05). In conclusion, the frequency of damaged chromatin was observed to be different in different male infertility factors, which could influence the ICSI outcomes. Therefore, the evaluation of sperm chromatin status before cycle initiation was found to promote ICSI outcomes.