Teratozoospermic sperm with highly fragmented DNA subjected to Discontinuous Gradient Centrifugation+Annexin V-MACS have similar fertilization and pregnancy rates than non-apoptotic controls

NOTRICA J.A.; VAZQUEZ MH; BOSSI NM; NOTRICA DE; POLAK DE FRIED E

Boston

Congreso; 69th ASRM Annual Meeting held Conjoint with IFFS; 2013

American Society of Reproductive Medicine

Teratozoospermic sperm with highly fragmented DNA subjected to Discontinuous Gradient Centrifugation+AnnexinV-MACS cell selection have similar fertilization and pregnancy rates than non-apoptotic controls J.A. Notrica1, M.H. Vazquez-Levin2, N.M. Bossi1, D.E. Notrica1, E. Polak de Fried1.1Reproductive Medicine, CER Medical Institute - Affiliated to the School of Medicine - Buenos Aires University, Humboldt 2263, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and 2Reproductive Medicine, IBYME Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine, Vuelta de Obligado 2490, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Objective: To evaluate fertilization and pregnancy rates in patients with sperm showing high levels of DNA fragmentation and treated with ICSI after Annexin V-Magnetic Activated Cell Sorting (AV-MACS) sperm selection. Design: Prospectively, all patients with high DNA fragmentation levels (TUNEL assay) in semen were subjected to ICSI treatment after AV-MACS sperm filtration. Controls (low percentage of apoptotic sperm) were treated with ICSI in the same time period. Materials and Methods: Seventy four couples with male factor infertility (Kruger morphology≤14%) were included in the study. DNA fragmentation analysis was done using TUNEL assay (abnormal>20%sperm). Semen samples were processed by Discontinuous Gradient Centrifugation (DGC; Isolate®, Irvine, USA) and subsequently filtered using AV-MACS® (Miltenyi Biotec, Germany) when TUNEL>20%. The eluted fraction was used for ICSI (ICSI-AV-MAC=42; ICSI-Control=14) or OD/ICSI (OD/ICSI-AV-MAC=10; OD/ICSI-Control=8) Results: Male and female patient age was similar between AV-MAC and Controls groups. Semen samples depicted normal sperm concentration and motility but abnormal sperm morphology in all groups. TUNEL assay revealed significant differences in semen samples assigned to AV-MAC sperm filtration compared to controls (ICSI-AV-MAC=35.4±2.1 versus ICSI-Control=12.6±1.5,p