Colasante Alessandro, Minasi Maria Giulia, Scarselli Filomena, Casciani Valentina, Zazzaro Vincenzo, Ruberti Alessandra, Greco Pierfrancesco, Varricchio Maria Teresa, Greco Ermanno
Centre for Reproductive Medicine, European Hospital, Rome.
Arch Ital Urol Androl. 2019 Jan 18;90(4):254-259. doi: 10.4081/aiua.2018.4.254.
the aim of our study was to put forward insights to treat any possible correlation among sperm quality, sperm DNA damage and male age as they may have fertility implications for men who choose to delay fatherhood.
Our study is a non-interventional retrospective analysis of 3124 semen samples from patients that were investigated for the conventional semen parameters. Tunel test assay was set up for the evaluation of the sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI). We applied the Kappa index to compare both the 1999 and the 2010 World Health Organization (WHO) reference criteria to evaluate the competence of such semen parameters categorization during the standard routine of our laboratory.
With regards to our findings, it is possible to underline a significant relationship between aging and semen volume (p = 0.001), motility (p = 0.009), semen viscosity (p < 0.003) and sperm DNA damage (p < 0.009). We found a trend when focusing on the semen concentration (p = 0.05). The analysis of sperm morphology did not show any influence with advancing age (p = 0.606). When comparing both the 1999 and the 2010 WHO scales we found no accordance in the appraisal of sperm morphology but a very good one in the evaluation of the other parameters.
Conventional semen analysis represents the opportunity to draw up a proxy insight on the male fertility status even if semen quality can only indirectly assess the probability of pregnancy. Several studies have verified a decay in the male reproductive system, sperm quality and fertility with advancing age although the reported results are not yet conclusive. Our results substantially agree with those findings outlined in the literature. Moreover we find that the discrepancy between the two WHO reference scales would eventually lead to an improper diagnosis of infertility.
我们研究的目的是深入探讨精子质量、精子DNA损伤与男性年龄之间可能存在的关联，因为这些因素可能会对选择推迟生育的男性的生育能力产生影响。
我们的研究是对3124例接受常规精液参数检查患者的精液样本进行的非干预性回顾性分析。采用Tunel检测法评估精子DNA碎片指数（DFI）。我们应用卡帕指数比较1999年和2010年世界卫生组织（WHO）的参考标准，以评估在我们实验室的标准常规操作中此类精液参数分类的准确性。
关于我们的研究结果，可以强调衰老与精液量（p = 0.001）、活力（p = 0.009）、精液粘度（p < 0.003）和精子DNA损伤（p < 0.009）之间存在显著关系。我们在关注精液浓度时发现了一种趋势（p = 0.05）。精子形态分析未显示年龄增长有任何影响（p = 0.606）。在比较1999年和2010年WHO标准时，我们发现对精子形态的评估不一致，但对其他参数的评估非常一致。
常规精液分析为了解男性生育状况提供了一个替代视角，尽管精液质量只能间接评估怀孕的可能性。多项研究证实，随着年龄增长，男性生殖系统、精子质量和生育能力会下降，尽管报道的结果尚无定论。我们的结果与文献中概述的那些发现基本一致。此外，我们发现两个WHO参考标准之间的差异最终会导致对不育症的诊断不当。
