Fertilisation and pregnancy outcome after ICSI in globozoospermic patients without assisted oocyte activation

Abstract

The successful outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with globozoospermic sperm and non-activated oocytes is reported. Three couples underwent ICSI treatment and two of the patients were siblings. Forty-four non-activated oocytes were injected, 26 oocytes fertilised normally and 17 good quality embryos were obtained. Six embryo transfers were carried out, three with fresh embryos and three with frozen-thawed embryos. Three pregnancies resulted from the fresh embryo transfers and additionally two pregnancies were obtained after the transfer of frozen-thawed embryos. Two healthy babies were born. One twin pregnancy is ongoing. Our case reports demonstrate that in some ICSI attempts undertaken with globozoospermic sperm cells from two of our patients, high fertilisation rates, pregnancies and live births can be achieved, without artificially activated oocytes. Our data also suggest that in some cases, round-headed spermatozoa lack the capacity to activate the oocyte. Therefore, it cannot be excluded that artificial oocyte activation could be of help in globozoospermic patients with complete fertilisation failure.

Outcomes with intracytoplasmic sperm injection of cryopreserved sperm from men with spinal cord injury

“…Progesterone was administered daily vaginally from the day of oocyte retrieval until the time of a negative pregnancy test or until 8 weeks of gestation. Embryo cryopreservation and frozen/thawed embryo transfer were performed as described previously [28]. …”

Association between total globozoospermia and sperm chromatin defects

“…Based on this evidence and introduction of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) into assisted reproductive techniques, a window of hope was opened for this type of infertile men. But unfortunately, rate fertilisation following ICSI was futile in these cases (Bechoua, Chiron, Delcleve‐Paulhac, Sagot, & Jimenez,; Dirican, Isik, Vicdan, Sozen, & Suludere, ; Zhang, Long, Huang, Xin, & Wu, ). In this regard, several studies demonstrated assisted oocyte activation (AOA) technique following ICSI can overcome this dearth.…”

A successful pregnancy and live birth after intracytoplasmic sperm injection with globozoospermic sperm and electrical oocyte activation

“…Therefore, the condition was considered intractable until the introduction of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). A normal live birth has been achieved by ICSI with globozoospermic sperm (2)(3)(4)(5); however, there are a significant number of patients in whom ICSI fails completely because of limited or failed fertilization. Fertilization failures have been attributed to the defective ability of the roundheaded sperm to activate oocytes (6).…”