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Effects of cryostorage on human sperm chromatin integrity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2012

Adriana Fortunato ,
Rita Leo  and
Francesca Liguori
Adriana Fortunato*
Affiliation:
IDF Centre, Piazza Municipio 4, 80138 Napoli, Italy.
Rita Leo
Affiliation:
IDF Centre, Piazza Municipio 4, 80138- Napoli, Italy.
Francesca Liguori
Affiliation:
IDF Centre, Piazza Municipio 4, 80138- Napoli, Italy.
*
All correspondence to: Adriana Fortunato. IDF Centre, Piazza Municipio 4, 80138 Napoli, Italy. Tel: +39 081 4201048. Fax: +39 081 4971164. e-mail: pmaadriana.fortunato@gmail.com
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Summary

The integrity of sperm chromatin structure has proven to be of great importance for human fertility. In this study, we investigated whether sperm cryopreservation has an effect on nuclear DNA tertiary structure, (i.e. condensation), measured by aniline blue staining, in 103 male patients who required consultation for hypo-fertility. Sperm DNA damage was significantly higher in patients showing oligospermia and severe morphological abnormalities than in native sperm populations. Furthermore we observed that chromatin decondensation was related to the cryostorage technique and to the duration of storage. This increase in decondensation was highly significant (P < 0.01) immediately after cryopreservation and from 90 days of cryostorage onwards. The possible mechanisms involved in sperm chromatin cryoinjury and the need to incorporate new methods for testing sperm nuclear structure alteration into the routine spermiogram are discussed.

Keywords

Aniline blueChromatin condensationCryopreservationSpermatozoa
Type
Research Article
Information
Zygote , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , November 2013 , pp. 330 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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