scholarly journals Human Sperm Cryopreservation: Update on Techniques, Effect on DNA Integrity, and Implications for ART

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlea Di Santo ◽  
Nicoletta Tarozzi ◽  
Marco Nadalini ◽  
Andrea Borini

Cryopreservation of human spermatozoa—introduced in the 1960's—has been recognized as an efficient procedure for management of male fertility before therapy for malignant diseases, vasectomy or surgical infertility treatments, to store donor and partner spermatozoa before assisted reproduction treatments and to ensure the recovery of a small number of spermatozoa in severe male factor infertility. Despite the usefulness of it, cryopreservation may lead to deleterious changes of sperm structure and function: while the effects of cryopreservation on cells are well documented, to date there is no agreement in the literature on whether or not cryopreservation affects sperm chromatin integrity or on the use of a unique and functional protocol for the freezing-thawing procedure. Therefore, sperm cryopreservation is an important component of fertility management and much of its successful application seems to affect the reproductive outcome of assisted reproduction technologies (ART): appropriate use of cryoprotectants before and sperm selection technologies after cryopreservation seem to have the greatest impact on preventing DNA fragmentation, thus improving sperm cryosurvival rates.

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1556 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Morrow ◽  
J. Gosálvez ◽  
C. López-Fernández ◽  
F. Arroyo ◽  
W. V. Holt ◽  
...  

There is growing concern over the effect of sperm cryopreservation on DNA integrity and the subsequent development of offspring generated from this cryopreserved material. In the present study, membrane integrity and DNA stability of Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis spermatozoa were evaluated in response to cryopreservation with or without activation, a process that happens upon exposure to water to spermatozoa of some aquatic species. A dye exclusion assay revealed that sperm plasma membrane integrity in both species decreased after freezing, more so for X. laevis than X. tropicalis spermatozoa. The sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) test showed that for both X. tropicalis and X. laevis, activated frozen spermatozoa produced the highest levels of DNA fragmentation compared with all fresh samples and frozen non-activated samples (P < 0.05). Understanding the nature of DNA and membrane damage that occurs in cryopreserved spermatozoa from Xenopus species represents the first step in exploiting these powerful model organisms to understand the developmental consequences of fertilising with cryopreservation-damaged spermatozoa.


2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Delbes ◽  
B. F. Hales ◽  
B. Robaire

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 31-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Le Saint ◽  
Isaac-Jacques Kadoch ◽  
François Bissonnette ◽  
Julie Choi ◽  
Jonathan Zini ◽  
...  

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 3488-3499 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Spanò ◽  
G. Toft ◽  
L. Hagmar ◽  
P. Eleuteri ◽  
M. Rescia ◽  
...  

Zygote ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thais Rose dos Santos Hamilton ◽  
Mayra Elena Ortiz D’Ávila Assumpção

SummarySperm DNA fragmentation is referred to as one of the main causes of male infertility. Failures in the protamination process, apoptosis and action of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are considered the most important causes of DNA fragmentation. Action of ROS or changes in sperm protamination would increase the susceptibility of sperm DNA to fragmentation. Routine semen analysis is unable to estimate sperm chromatin damage. Sperm DNA integrity influences sperm functional capability, therefore tests that measure sperm DNA fragmentation are important to assess fertility disorders. Actually, there is a considerable number of methods for assessing sperm DNA fragmentation and chromatin integrity, sperm chromatin stability assay (SCSA modified), sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD), comet assay, transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL); and protamine evaluation in sperm chromatin assay, such as toluidine blue, CMA3, protamine expression and evaluation of cysteine radicals. This review aims to describe the main causes of sperm DNA fragmentation and the tests commonly used to evaluate sperm DNA fragmentation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 57 (No. 3) ◽  
pp. 133-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Prinosilova ◽  
R. Rybar ◽  
A. Zajicova ◽  
J. Hlavicova

Sperm chromatin status in fresh dog semen and the effect of long-term storage of chilled and frozen dog semen on sperm chromatin integrity was assessed by the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA). In the first experiment, the chromatin integrity of fresh semen from 60 dogs with differing histories of fertility was compared with other sperm parameters (total sperm count, sperm motility, viability, acrosomal integrity and sperm morphology). Except for 15 dogs that had never mated before, all were used in breeding as semen donors. Thirty-three of them were successful breeding males while in 12 repeated fertility problems were noted. Ejaculates were assigned to groups with good and poor quality, based on determined sperm motility and percentage of morphologically normal sperm. In the second experiment, chromatin status was measured in fresh and chilled spermatozoa (on day 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 of storage). Finally, in the third experiment, the chromatin status was measured in fresh and cryopreserved spermatozoa. Evaluating fresh dog semen, we observed that DNA fragmentation index (DFI) and percentage of cells with high DNA stainability (HDS) negatively correlated with total sperm count, percentage of total and progressively motile spermatozoa, sperm viability and percentage of morphologically normal spermatozoa, even with rather low correlation indices. Lower chromatin integrity was found in the group of dog ejaculates showing poor quality in comparison with the group of good quality ejaculates. All dogs with repeated fertility problems were classed in the group showing poor quality, and even though their DFI was significantly higher than the DFI of successful breeding males, the highest DFI we obtained was only just below 9%. We can assume that the chromatin damage level in any of the evaluated dogs was not high enough to have a significant effect on their fertility. Concerning the potential cause of reduced male fertility, the assessment of chromatin integrity in fresh dog ejaculates failed to add any additional information to the results obtained by other techniques of semen analysis. Thus, the current study indicates that neither 10-day preservation of canine sperm chilled in commercial extenders nor long-term cryopreservation in extenders recommended for canine sperm preservation produce adverse effects on sperm chromatin integrity. &nbsp;


Zygote ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 825-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Celina Abraham ◽  
Anders Johannisson ◽  
Jane M. Morrell

SummarySperm preparation is an important step in the in vitro production of embryos. Centrifugation through colloids has been used to select normal sperm for assisted reproduction in several species. Animal models can sometimes be used as a preliminary step to investigate sperm preparation methods that are potentially of use for human fertility treatments. In this study bovine semen was prepared using three variants of the single-layer centrifugation sperm selection technique (Small, Mini, Mini-EP) with Bovicoll (Androcoll-B). Computer-assisted sperm motility analysis, the hypo-osmotic swelling test, and the sperm chromatin structure assay were performed on unselected (control) and SLC-selected sperm samples. Mini and Mini-EP gave the highest yield of motile spermatozoa, progressive motility and membrane integrity. In vitro fertilization trials were performed to investigate the fertilizing ability of the frozen–thawed bovine spermatozoa selected with Bovicoll. Mini-SLC (single-layer centrifugation) and swim-up (Control) were performed and cleavage rate and blastocyst rate did not differ significantly between groups. As there was a trend to an increased number of cells in blastocysts in the SLC group, the Mini-SLC method is at least as good as swim-up for selecting frozen–thawed bull spermatozoa for in vitro fertilization (IVF). This method could potentially be used to prepare human sperm for assisted reproduction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e24061-e24061
Author(s):  
Isadora B Teloken ◽  
Alvaro Petracco ◽  
Andre P. Fay ◽  
Claudio Teloken ◽  
Mariangela Badalotti

e24061 Background: Cancer treatment represents a potential risk for spermatogenesis and may compromise male fertility. Semen freezing has become a routine process for male patients prior to cancer treatment to preserve their fertility. We sought to provide information regarding what happens to the cryopreserved material and the fertility in cancer treated patients. Using a cohort from a 23-year cryopreservation program. Methods: Patients whom cryopreserved sperm to preserve fertility due to diagnosis of cancer between 1995 and 2018 in a single private center of reproductive medicine in south of Brazil were selected. A retrospective analysis of medical records was performed and clinico-pathological characteristics were collected using standard templates. Results: A total of 480 patients were evaluated for sperm cryopreservation before cancer treatment. Testis cancer was the most prevalent (59.3%), followed by hematologic malignancies (21.4%) and prostate cancer (5.4%). The age at cryopreservation varied from 14 to 72 y/o. Among them, 61.3% were up to 30 years old, and 10.8% more than 40 y/o. 8 patients decided to not cryopreserve The mean time between the freezing and the beginning of cancer treatment was 5.5 days. Eleven patients presented azoospermia; 3 of them froze testicular tissue. A shorter time between cancer diagnosis and sperm banking was observed for hematologic malignancies ( p=0.044). Out of the 472 patients, 46.8% still keep the sperm cryopreserved, 34.3% decided to discard it, 1.9% transferred it to another clinic, 8,5% abandon the specimen and 8,5% died without using it. The main reason for discard the sample was pregnancy and/or normal sperm count after treatment. The mean age of discarding was 35.7±10.3 years old. The period of maintenance cryopreservation was 5 years (min 1 month, max 23 years). The mean time of freezing before abandoning was 7.5±4.4 years Eighty-two patients achieved pregnancy. Spontaneous pregnancies occurred in 53 cases, and 47 underwent assisted reproduction with the cryopreserved sample, with 61,7% of pregnancy (n=29).15.3% of those that have children still keep the sperm cryopreserved; 11.4% gave up on having children. Out of the 133, 66.9% authorized the use of their specimen post-mortem. Conclusions: Only one third of the patients have maintained fertility after cancer treatment and 35% of pregnancies after cancer treatment were possible due to sperm preservation. Considering the high pregnancy rate with assisted reproduction techniques in patients that lost testicular functionsemen cryopreservation is warranted.


2005 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Rignell-Hydbom ◽  
Lars Rylander ◽  
Aleksander Giwercman ◽  
B.A.G. Jönsson ◽  
Christian Lindh ◽  
...  

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