Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.
Sexual Medicine and Andrology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Biomedical Sciences "Mario Serio", University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
Andrology. 2018 Jan;6(1):230-235. doi: 10.1111/andr.12429. Epub 2017 Sep 26.
Despite more cancers in young men over the past two decades, improvements in therapies give a greater chance to live full lives following treatment. Sperm genomic quality is variable following cancer diagnosis, so its assessment is important if sperm cryopreservation is being considered. Here, we evaluated DNA damage using two DNA damage assays: an alkaline and for the first time, a neutral Comet assays in men presenting with testicular cancer (n = 19 for alkaline and 13 for neutral group) and lymphoma (n = 13 for alkaline and 09 for neutral group) compared with fertile donors (n = 20 for alkaline and 14 for neutral group). No significant differences were observed in any semen analysis parameters. In contrast, sperm DNA damage was higher in men with testicular cancer than in donors as assessed by both the alkaline (12.4% vs. 37.4%, p < 0.001) and neutral (7.5% vs. 13.4%; p < 0.05) Comet assays. Similar trends were observed in men with lymphoma. Here, sperm DNA damage was higher using both the alkaline (35.0% vs. 12.4%) and neutral (10.7% against 7.5% (p < 0.05) Comet assays. Moreover, the DNA strand breaks (particularly double-strand breaks) were significantly more prominent in men with cancer having abnormal seminal parameters than normozoospermic ones. This study showed that sperm DNA testing using alkaline and neutral Comet assays is more sensitive than semen analysis in detecting impaired sperm quality in men presenting with cancer. It may provide a useful adjunct when considering storage prior to cancer investigations and assisted reproductive techniques (ART)-based treatment.
尽管在过去的二十年中，年轻男性的癌症发病率有所上升，但治疗方法的改进提高了他们在治疗后过上完整生活的机会。癌症诊断后，精子基因组质量存在差异，因此如果考虑进行精子冷冻保存，评估其质量很重要。在这里，我们使用两种 DNA 损伤检测方法（碱性 Comet 检测和首次使用的中性 Comet 检测）评估了患有睾丸癌（碱性组 19 例，中性组 13 例）和淋巴瘤（碱性组 13 例，中性组 09 例）男性的精子 DNA 损伤情况，并与生育力正常的捐赠者（碱性组 20 例，中性组 14 例）进行了比较。在任何精液分析参数中，均未观察到显著差异。相反，与捐赠者相比，患有睾丸癌的男性的精子 DNA 损伤更高，这两种 Comet 检测方法（碱性：12.4%比 37.4%，p<0.001；中性：7.5%比 13.4%，p<0.05）都显示了这一结果。在患有淋巴瘤的男性中也观察到了类似的趋势。在这里，两种 Comet 检测方法（碱性：35.0%比 12.4%；中性：10.7%比 7.5%）均显示，患有癌症的男性的精子 DNA 损伤更高。此外，与具有正常精液参数的男性相比，具有异常精液参数的癌症男性的 DNA 链断裂（尤其是双链断裂）更为显著。本研究表明，与精液分析相比，使用碱性和中性 Comet 检测的精子 DNA 检测在检测癌症患者精子质量受损方面更为敏感。在考虑癌症检查和辅助生殖技术（ART）治疗之前进行精子储存时，该检测可能是一种有用的辅助方法。
