[Ultrastructural analysis of human ejaculate from infertile subjects].
It has been demonstrated that the semen of infertile patients contains at high percentage of abnormal forms and no clear answer has been so far provided to the questions of which malformations are compatible with male fertility, which malformations are responsible for the infertility and which is the percentage of defective cells that gives rise to infertility. In this study the eiaculates of 56 patients of suspected male infertility were used as material. The semen samples were fixed for 2 hr at room temperature in 4% glutaraldehyde in 0.05 M cacodilate buffer + 0.018% CaCl2 + 6.6% sucrose, post-fixed in 1.5% OsO4 in same buffer + 6.6% sucrose, dehydrated and embedded in Spurr. The samples were sectioned with Reichert OMu3 ultratome. The sections, contrasted with uranyl acetate and lead citrate, were examined in a Feol M T8 E.M. The varieties of sperm malformations are described and classificated into morphological categories based upon the type of alteration and the cellular portion in which the malformation appeared. From this research we have got the following conclusions: 1) an absolute correlation between microscopical, ultrastructural defects and functionality of spermatozoa does not exists; 2) the submicroscopic analysis contributes to a more accurate definition of the eiaculate; 3) the high variability of the ultrastructural defects needs that the submicroscopical analysis of the human semen must be supplemented by a quantitative evaluation.
Bairati
A
A
Conti
S
S
Della Morte
E
E
Giarola
A
A
Gioria
M
M
D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D013077:Sperm Head / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013082:Sperm Tail / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000648:ultrastructure*
Analisi dell'ultrastruttura dell'eiaculato umano in soggetti infertili.