Buendía P, Soler C, Paolicchi F, Gago G, Urquieta B, Pérez-Sánchez F, Bustos-Obregón E
Department of Animal Biology, València University, Burjassot, Spain.
Theriogenology. 2002 Mar 1;57(4):1207-18. doi: 10.1016/s0093-691x(01)00724-5.
Sperm morphology has been identified as one characteristic which can be useful in the prediction of sperm fertility, therefore, we hope that this study aimed at establishing standardized morphological criteria might serve in future studies dealing with the search for sperm parameters which facilitate an estimation of sperm quality. For this purpose, ejaculates from fertile alpacas were used to evaluate sperm head morphometry by means of the Sperm-Class Analyzer (SCA) computer-aided image analysis system. We defined three morphological categories according to sperm head size (normal 50%, small 26%, large 24%) and five categories according to sperm head shape (normal 47%, pyriform 3%, short 20%, round 1%, long 29%). Sperm classification according to shape was performed by first morphometrically characterizing sperm heads clearly falling into each of the shape categories. Thereafter, discriminant analysis was performed on the data from these typical sperm heads and the resulting classification functions were used to categorize 2,200 spermatozoa from 11 alpacas. Classification of sperm heads by this method agreed in 88% of the cases with most of the misclassifications being due to pyriform heads classified as long heads. Morphometric values obtained from samples of 50, 100, 150, 175 and 200 sperm heads were compared. At least 150 sperm heads should be evaluated to overcome sample size influence on sperm measurements. Significant differences in sperm morphometry were found between individuals (CV for morphometric parameters ranging from 1.3 to 13.0) and there were marked differences in the sperm morphological composition of the ejaculates. Within-animal CV ranged from 4.7 to 17.8 thus showing the high degree of sperm polymorphism present in the alpaca ejaculate.
精子形态已被确定为一项有助于预测精子生育能力的特征，因此，我们希望这项旨在建立标准化形态学标准的研究，能为未来探寻有助于评估精子质量的精子参数的研究提供帮助。为此，利用来自可育羊驼的射精样本，借助精子分类分析仪（SCA）计算机辅助图像分析系统评估精子头部形态测量值。我们根据精子头部大小定义了三种形态类别（正常50%，小26%，大24%），并根据精子头部形状定义了五种类别（正常47%，梨形3%，短20%，圆形1%，长29%）。根据形状对精子进行分类时，首先对明显属于每种形状类别的精子头部进行形态测量表征。此后，对这些典型精子头部的数据进行判别分析，并将所得分类函数用于对来自11只羊驼的2200个精子进行分类。用这种方法对精子头部进行分类时，88%的情况是相符的，大多数错误分类是由于梨形头部被归类为长形头部。比较了从50、100、150、175和200个精子头部样本获得的形态测量值。应至少评估150个精子头部，以克服样本大小对精子测量的影响。个体之间在精子形态测量上存在显著差异（形态测量参数的变异系数范围为1.3至13.0），射精样本的精子形态组成也存在明显差异。动物体内的变异系数范围为4.7至17.8，从而表明羊驼射精样本中存在高度的精子多态性。
