Effect of Sperm Chromatin Integrity on Parameters of In Vitro Fertilization

Infertility affects 15% of couples seeking children worldwide and male factor is evident in about 30-50% of the cases. To assess the effect of sperm chromatin integrity on the outcomes of intracytoplasmic injection, sperm DNA compactness was evaluated by acridine orange staining in 40 fertile and 44 infertile men attending one infertility clinic. The results showed no significant difference in the percentage of sperm with integrated DNA between the fertile and the infertile groups (p 0.05). Also, no significant difference (p 0.05) between fertile and infertile men was found in terms of fertilization rate, and pregnancy rate. However, a significant difference was found in developmental rate (p 0.05). When the percentage of sperm with DNA fragmentation was 38%, there was a decline in embryos quality. The current work concludes that conventional semen analysis is moderately predictive of an individual’s infertility. Thus, a need arises for new assays for the evaluation of sperm quality