Human live spermatozoa morphology assessment using digital holographic microscopy

Abstract

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) was applied for the morphological assessment of live intact spermatozoa from fertile and infertile men directly after semen liquefaction. This method allowed us to study the sperm population directly from the sample droplet and not only from the focal plane of the microscope as in classical optical microscopy. The newly implemented 3-dimensional sperm morphological parameters (head height, acrosome/nucleus height, head/midpiece height) were included in morphological assessment of semen samples from fertile and infertile individuals. The values of the 3D parameters were less variable in fertile men than for infertile ones. DHM was also used to compare the morphological profiles of spermatozoa after applying the “swim-up” and gradient centrifugation techniques. During selection, the most statistically significant differences were observed after separation with a Percoll gradient of 90% and a 60-min “swim-up” procedure versus ‘native’ unfractionated samples. This shows that the developed methodology can be efficiently used for the selection of morphologically sound spermatozoa. The motility type for each spermatozoon was also assessed. The results indicate that the extension of the number of morphological parameters with new 3D parameters and the simultaneous assessment of sperm motility may be valuable addition to sperm examination.

Which sperm parameter limits could really guide the clinical decision in assisted reproduction?

“…This has been recently demonstrated applied three-dimensional sperm evaluation comparing fertile to infertile men. 40 In our cohort, we detected a progressive sperm motility difference between couples who achieved and who did not achieve a live birth of 0.61% for fresh and 0.83% for frozen embryo transfers.…”

“…We could speculate that the highest progressive motility is, the best sperm quality and competence. This has been recently demonstrated applied three‐dimensional sperm evaluation comparing fertile to infertile men 40 …”

Abnormality Determination of Spermatozoa Motility Using Gaussian Mixture Model and Matching-based Algorithm

“…This way is commonly done by manually testing with visual microscopy using a microscope [11] [12]. Microscopy [13] has a fairly high subjective value, that there is necessity to have an experienced examiner with expertise and skills in assessing spermatozoa movement to be able to obtain accurate test results [14]. This manual analysis has several obstacles including experts in the analysis process having varying abilities, so there is a possibility of differences in reading results [15].…”