title: Comparison of four methods to evaluate sperm DNA integrity between mouse caput and cauda epididymidis.
abstract: It is well known that transit through the epididymis involves an increase in the compaction of sperm chromatin, which acquires fully condensed status at the caput epididymidis. The purpose of this study was to compare the terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labelling (TUNEL) assay, the comet assay, the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) and the sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) test by analysing spermatozoa from the caput and cauda epididymidis in order to demonstrate the ability of each technique to discriminate between different degrees of sperm maturity related to chromatin compaction and DNA fragmentation. Our results suggest that some populations of DNA-fragmented spermatozoa associated with immature sperm can only be identified using the comet assay and the SCSA but not with the SCD test or the TUNEL assay.
authors: Department of Animal Reproduction, National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, Madrid 28040, Spain. sperc@unileon.es
authors: Serafín
authors: S
authors: Pérez-Cerezales
authors: Alberto
authors: A
authors: Miranda
authors: Alfonso
authors: A
authors: Gutiérrez-Adán
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002843:Chromatin / Q000502:physiology*; D042002:Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly / Q000502:physiology*; D020552:Comet Assay; D003581:Cytodiagnosis / Q000379:methods; D004247:DNA / Q000502:physiology*; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D004822:Epididymis / Q000502:physiology*; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D023421:Models, Animal; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D004247:DNA