Evaluation of sperm nuclear morphology in specimens with abnormal sperm chromatin structural assays.
Two recent tests have claimed to identify the subfertile male even when other semen parameters were normal: the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) and abnormal sperm nuclear morphology using much higher magnification. The present study attempted to determine if having a high (> 30%) DNA fragmentation index (DFI), thus resulting in an abnormal SCSA test, is associated with a greater likelihood of sperm with abnormal nuclei. Four males with high DFI scores (57.6%, 65.4%, 31.0%, and 35.3%) had their nuclei evaluated by a complex microscope set-up that magnifies the sperm at least 6000x. The corresponding % of normal nuclei was 0%, 20.0%, 23.7% and 40.0%. The mean and median % of normal nuclei was 20.9+/-16.43 and 21.8, respectively. More studies of similarly matched refractory in vitro fertilization cases, where males have normal DFI scores, are needed to determine if having a high DFI index is associated with a lower percentage of normal nuclei.
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J H
JH
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Camden, Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, USA. laurie@ccivf.com
Summers-Chase
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Swenson
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M L
ML
Amadi
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D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D002843:Chromatin / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000648:ultrastructure*
D002843:Chromatin