Aneuploidy in spermatozoa of infertile men with teratozoospermia

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that aneuploidy in spermatozoa of infertile men with poor semen quality is increased. The purpose of this study was to determine whether poor sperm morphology is associated with the incidence of spermatozoa with numerical chromosome abnormalities. Semen samples from 20 infertile teratozoospermic men were studied using multicolour fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Men were divided into four groups according to the proportion of normal sperm morphology: infertile men with <10% (group A, n=7), 10-19% (group B, n=6), and 20-29% (group C, n=7) of morphologically normal spermatozoa, and controls (group D, n=5) with > or =30% normal forms. Two hybridizations were performed. All the samples were analysed using probes for chromosomes 1 and 7 and, in addition, in group A and in controls with normal semen parameters probes for chromosomes X, Y and 18 were also used. Ten thousand spermatozoa were scored per hybridization. Severely teratozoospermic men (<10% normal forms) had significantly higher frequency of disomy 7, 18, YY, XY and diploidy in their spermatozoa when compared with controls. The results suggest that poor sperm morphology is associated with numerical chromosome abnormalities of spermatozoa. Severely teratozoospermic men may be at an increased risk of producing aneuploid offspring.

Modification of chromosomal architecture in human spermatozoa with large vacuoles

“…However, a recent publication seemed to minimize the impact of altered spermiogenesis on chromosome topography (Ioannou et al, 2011). Secondly, oligozoospermia (Rives et al, 1999;Vegetti et al, 2000;Calogero et al, 2001;Tempest & Griffin, 2004), asthenozoospermia (Vegetti et al, 2000;Tempest & Griffin, 2004) and teratozoospermia (Calogero et al, 2001;Harkonen et al, 2001;Machev et al, 2005) have been related to sperm aneuploidy. Confusingly, sperm aneuploidy has been associated with modification of chromosome localization in sperm heads: Olszewska et al (2008) demonstrated disturbances in the centromere area in sperm nuclei of infertile patients with an increased level of aneuploidy compared with fertile males; in sperm cells of infertile patients with an increased level of aneuploidy, 'some differences in the preferential longitudinal centromere positioning between sperm nuclei with hyperhaploidic karyotype (n + 1) vs. normal karyotype (n)' were observed.…”

The relationship between male infertility and increased levels of sperm disomy

“…While the majority report an association between increased disomy 1 levels, several (Miharu et al, 1994;Guttenbach et al, 1997;Harkonen et al, 2001) found no evidence of such an increase. Guttenbach et al (1997) examined 45 males with varying compromised semen parameters (and 8 controls) reporting no significant difference between them (0.13 and 0.12 %, respectively).…”

Meiotic segregation and sperm DNA fragmentation in Tunisian men with dysplasia of the fibrous sheath (DFS) associated with head abnormalities

“…Association between morphological sperm deformities and sperm chromosomal abnormalities has been investigated extensively but the results were controversial. Most of the studies showed that teratozoospermia, like other forms of abnormal semen profiles (asthenozoospermia, oligozoospermia), is a marker of elevated sperm aneuploidy [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Indeed, sperm of isolated teratozoospermic men have shown higher rates of chromosomal abnormalities than that of fertile controls [24,26,28].…”