Activated caspases in thawed epididymal and testicular spermatozoa of patients with congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens and intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcome.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the expression of activated caspases and membrane permeability in thawed epididymal and testicular spermatozoa of patients with congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD).

DESIGN

Retrospective study.

SETTING

Biology and medicine of reproduction in University hospital.

PATIENT(S): Eight CBAVD patients.

INTERVENTION(S): Staining of activated caspases and viability (propidium iodide, PI); intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Proportion of viable (Casp-/PI-) or dead (Casp-/PI+) spermatozoa without activated caspases, viable (Casp+/PI-) or dead (Casp+/PI+) spermatozoa with activated caspases. ICSI results.

RESULT(S): Higher percentage of dead (Casp+/PI+; 84.0% vs. 57.5%) and viable (Casp+/PI-; 12.0% vs. 0) spermatozoa with activated caspases were observed in testicular than in epididymal samples. No significant difference was observed between the percentage of total testicular and epididymal spermatozoa permeant for PI. The outcome of ICSI fertilization (67.5% vs. 57.4%), good morphology embryo at day 2 (75.9% vs. 61.3%), clinical pregnancy (26.7% vs. 15.4%), and implantation (15.6% vs 9.5%) rates were better when ICSI were performed with epididymal sperm samples.

CONCLUSION(S): These results support the hypothesis of an abortive apoptotic process and demonstrate that combined staining of the activated caspases and membrane permeability provide complementary measurements for the evaluation of viable and functional spermatozoa to better understand ICSI outcomes with epididymal and testicular spermatozoa.