Purpose To know which sperm selection technique, physiological intracytoplasmic sperm injection (PICSI) or magneticactivated cell sorting (MACS), is better for the selection of sperm with abnormal sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) in patients undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Methods A prospective randomized trial included 413 ICSI cases with abnormal SDF (> 20.3%) by TUNEL assay. Patients with at least 1 million total progressive motile sperm count were randomized to PICSI or MACS groups on the day of ICSI. PICSI depends on the hyaluronan binding of better SDF sperm where individual sperm was selected, while MACS selects nonapoptotic sperm population using Annexin V magnetic beads. All pre-implantation embryogenic parameters were observed and the main outcome was the ongoing pregnancy rate. Results There were no significant differences between patients allocated to PICSI and MACS in the studied parameters including pre-implantation embryological data, implantation, clinical pregnancy, and ongoing pregnancy rates. Meanwhile, sub-analysis according to the female age has shown that female patients with less than 30 years of age in the MACS group had significantly higher good-quality blastocyst, clinical pregnancy, and ongoing pregnancy rates than the PICSI group. However, the higher implantation (p = 0.051), clinical pregnancy (p = 0.078), and ongoing pregnancy (p = 0.097) rates observed in females between 30 and 35 years of age in the PICSI group did not reach significance level. Conclusions PICSI and MACS are efficient techniques for sperm selection in cases with abnormal sperm DNA fragmentation. However, MACS is preferred when the females are younger than 30 years, while PICSI is preferred in older females. Clinical trial registration number NCT03398317 (retrospectively registered)

No abstract

Male factor infertility is responsible for half of all infertility cases. Conventional semen analysis is inadequate to evaluate male fertility. Sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) test can be done by: direct methods such as Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP Nick-End Labeling (TUNEL) and Comet assay, or indirect like Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA) and Sperm Chromatin Dispersion (SCD). TUNEL assay measures both single-and double-strand breaks and is technically less demanding, while SCSA tests for the susceptibility for nuclear DNA denaturation and samples should be sent to the reference lab. Studies showed that a single cut-off value does not fit all.Therefore, this study aimed at establishing a cut-off value to discriminate between fertile and infertile Egyptian men. We enrolled 354 infertile men and 40 proven fertile volunteers.TUNEL assay was performed using Apo-Direct kit and bench top flow cytometer.The calculated SDF cut-off value was 20.3% with a sensitivity of 96.6% and specificity of 87.5%, and the overall accuracy of the test was 95.7%. Sperm DNA fragmentation Test using TUNEL assay is valuable tool for male infertility evaluation, and it assists in offering the best treatment options based on it's results. K E Y W O R D Smale infertility, SDF cut-off value, sperm DNA fragmentation, TUNEL assay How to cite this article: Hassanen E, Elqusi K, Zaki H, Henkel R, Agarwal A. TUNEL assay: Establishing a sperm DNA fragmentation cut-off value for Egyptian infertile men.

No abstract

Embryonic thermal manipulation was known as an effective protocol for improving post-hatch growth performance and thermotolerance acquisition among avian species. Previously, we evaluated the impact of embryonic thermal manipulation of Japanese quail on embryonic development, hatchability, and post-hatch performance. We conducted the current study to furtherly elucidate the effects of thermal manipulations of Japanese quail embryos on internal organ weights, carcass traits, and meat quality parameters at post-hatch day 35. Quail eggs of control group were incubated at 37.7 °C and relative humidity (RH) 55%. Three thermally manipulated groups of quail eggs were incubated intermittently at 41°C and 65% RH intermittently (3 hours/day): the early embryonic group (TM1) was thermally challenged at embryonic day (ED6) to ED8, the late embryonic group (TM2) was thermally challenged at ED12-14, and early/late embryonic group (TM3) was thermally challenged in both time windows. Quail meat quality parameters, carcass traits, and internal organ weights were evaluated at post-hatch day 35. The results revealed that early embryonic thermal manipulation (TM1 group) is an effective protocol for decreasing fat pad accumulation. The pH value of breast meat in all TM treatments revealed significant (P < 0.05) decreases by 5% in comparison with that of control without any negative effects on breast meat composition or sensory criteria. Early embryonic thermal manipulation would be recommended as an enhanced protocol that can be used to reach the favored lucrative effects of the thermal treatment in meat-type quail.