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Novel Sperm Tests and Their Importance

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Non-Invasive Sperm Selection for In Vitro Fertilization

Abstract

Since standard semen analysis is incomplete and does neither provide information about the functional capacity of the male germ cell, nor shows low variability of the individual parameters such a sperm count or motility, scientists were urged to find other solutions to the problem of accurately predicting male fertility. Yet even parameters with a low biological variability like normal sperm morphology or sperm DNA fragmentation do not detect sperm abnormalities in about 20 % of infertile men. Since a high prevalence of idiopathic infertility is observed, some laboratories incorporated advanced sperm tests to determine the functionality of the acrosome, chromatin condensation or DNA fragmentation into andrological diagnostic. Particularly, the latter one together with high resolution morphological analysis (motile sperm organelle morphology examination; MSOME) has been identified as a valuable parameter. Except for MSOME, all other methods used to diagnose the male fertility capacity are consumptive, i.e. spermatozoa are used and by the very nature of the procedures involved are devitalized and therefore not suitable for fertilization anymore. Nevertheless, the progress made in improving, standardizing and validating the methodologies various male fertility parameters including sperm DNA damage, the prediction of male fertility remains controversial and the emphasis for new techniques to predict the male fertility potential is not only on the identification of parameters with low biological variation and the standardization, reliability, repeatability, and validation of the relevant techniques, but also on cost-effectiveness, time consumption as well as the application of non-consumptive tests where the sperm cells can then still be used for insemination purposes. Other novel techniques that have been shown to have significant importance in the diagnosis of sperm fertilizing potential include mitochondrial membrane potential, sperm binding to hyaluronic acid, the determination of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in the seminal plasma. Furthermore, newly developed techniques that might become important to test male fertility potential are sperm birefringence, proteomics, and genomics using microarrays. Except for the examination of the sperm cells’ birefringence, for which a cutoff value of 20 % spermatozoa showing birefringence has been suggested as indicator for fertility, the other techniques are still in their infancy and need to be developed further. Particularly, specific biomarkers have to be identified and validated.

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  1. Department of Medical Biosciences, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, 7535, Western Cape Province, South Africa

    Ralf Henkel PhD, BEd

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  1. Cleveland Clinic, Andrology Center & Center for Reproductive Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Ashok Agarwal

  2. Fertility - Centro de Fertilização Assistida, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Edson Borges Jr.

  3. Instituto Sapientiae - Centro de Estudos e Pesquisa em Reprodução Assistida, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Amanda S. Setti

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Henkel, R. (2015). Novel Sperm Tests and Their Importance. In: Agarwal, A., Borges Jr., E., Setti, A. (eds) Non-Invasive Sperm Selection for In Vitro Fertilization. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1411-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1411-1_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1410-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1411-1

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