Relationship between sperm progressive motility and DNA integrity in fertile and infertile men

Abstract

Background: Progressive sperm motility was found to be predictive for in vitro and in vivo fertilization. There has been an increase in the literature of studies investigating whether DNA fragmentation could be associated with other semen parameters; however, few reports focused on the relationship between sperm DNA fragmentation and progressive sperm motility. Purpose: We purposed here to determine the relationship between DNA fragmentation level and progressive sperm motility in different groups of infertile asthenozoospermic patients as well as in healthy men of proven fertility. Study design: Retrospective study. Setting: Andrology Laboratory of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) department of Elite fertility and gynecology center, Cairo, Egypt. Patients and methods: Semen samples were collected and examined after liquefaction for 20 min at 37 °C from 182 patients. Patient were then classified as asthenozoospermic [(Mild asthenozoospermia; PR (progressive sperm motility) = 30–20%, n = 58), (Moderate asthenozoospermia; PR = 20–10%, n = 68) and (Severe asthenozoospermia; PR < 10%, n = 56)] and 32 fertile healthy men as a control. Outcome results: Fertile healthy men showed lower sperm DNA fragmentation levels as compared with asthenozoospermic infertile men. There was a significant negative correlation of sperm DNA fragmentation using the modified sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) test with motility (r = −0.319; P < .001) and progressive motility (r = −0.474; P < .001). Conclusion: Overall, our data suggest that sperm DNA damage is strongly associated with both type and percentage of motility. Keywords: DNA fragmentation, Progressive motility, Male infertility, Asthenozoospermia, Semen analysis, Modified sperm chromatin dispersion test, Semen parameters