Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Indian J Med Res. 2010 May;131:675-81.
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: The growing concern on transmission of genetic diseases in assisted reproduction technique (ART) and the lacunae in the conventional semen analysis to accurately predict the semen quality has led to the need for new techniques to identify the best quality sperm that can be used in assisted procreation techniques. This study analyzes the sperm parameters in the context of DNA damage in cytogenetically normal, AZF non deleted infertile men for DNA damage by comet assay.
Seventy infertile men and 40 fertile controls were evaluated for the semen quality by conventional semen parameters and the sperms were also analyzed for DNA integrity by comet assay. The patients were classified into oligozoospermic (O), asthenozoospermic (A), teratozoospermic (T), oligoasthenoteratozoospermic (OAT) categories and infertile men with normal semen profile. The extent of DNA damage was assessed by visual scoring method of comets.
Idiopathic infertile men with normal semen profile (n=18) according to conventional method and patients with history of spontaneous abortions and normal semen profile (n=10) had high degree of DNA damage (29 and 47% respectively) as compared to fertile controls (7%). The O, A, T and OAT categories of patients had a variably higher DNA damage load as compared to fertile controls.
INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: The normal range and threshold for DNA damage as a predictor of male fertility potential and technique which could assess the sperm DNA damage are necessary to lower the trauma of couples experiencing recurrent spontaneous abortion or failure in ART.
人们越来越关注辅助生殖技术（ART）中遗传疾病的传播，以及常规精液分析在准确预测精液质量方面的不足，这导致需要新技术来识别可用于辅助生育技术的最佳质量精子。本研究通过彗星试验分析了染色体正常、AZF 非缺失的不育男性精子的 DNA 损伤与精液参数的关系，以评估精子的 DNA 完整性。
对 70 名不育男性和 40 名正常生育男性进行常规精液参数评估，同时通过彗星试验分析精子的 DNA 完整性。将患者分为少精子症（O）、弱精子症（A）、畸形精子症（T）、少弱畸形精子症（OAT）和正常精液参数的不育男性。通过彗星的视觉评分方法评估 DNA 损伤的程度。
根据常规方法，正常精液参数的特发性不育男性（n=18）和有自然流产史且正常精液参数的患者（n=10）的 DNA 损伤程度较高（分别为 29%和 47%），与正常生育对照组（7%）相比。O、A、T 和 OAT 类别的患者的 DNA 损伤负荷均高于正常生育对照组。
为了降低反复自然流产或 ART 失败的夫妇的创伤，需要确定 DNA 损伤的正常范围和阈值作为男性生育潜能的预测指标，以及评估精子 DNA 损伤的技术。
