Evaluation of sperm nuclear morphology in specimens with abnormal sperm chromatin structural assays.

Abstract

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.