Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-05T22:45:57.149Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - Sperm Selection for ART Success

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2020

By
R. John Aitken
Edited by
R. John Aitken ,
David Mortimer  and
Gabor Kovacs
R. John Aitken
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle, New South Wales
David Mortimer
Affiliation:
Oozoa Biomedical Inc, Vancouver
Gabor Kovacs
Affiliation:
Epworth Healthcare Melbourne
Get access

Summary

This chapter describes techniques for the preparation of human spermatozoa for assisted conception. Traditional swim-up techniques depend on the intrinsic motility of human spermatozoa and have been used as the basis for new microfluidics devices that exploit the capacity of these cells for chemotaxis, rheotaxis or thermotaxis. Unfortunately, such self-migration strategies tend to lose effectiveness with pathological samples exhibiting poor levels of motility and/or diminished counts. With such compromised starting material, active selection of spermatozoa can be achieved by exploiting differences between sperm populations in their density or charge. Density gradient centrifugation selects spermatozoa with minimal residual cytoplasm that are highly motile and have good morphology, even though the induction of sperm DNA damage in certain patients may be problematical. Alternatively, methodologies based on differences in sperm charge, appear to hold promise for the rapid, efficient isolation of highly motile human spermatozoa that consistently exhibit low levels of DNA damage.

Type
Chapter
Information
Male and Sperm Factors that Maximize IVF Success , pp. 1 - 14
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hourcade, J. D., Pérez-Crespo, M., Fernández-González, R., Pintado, B. and Gutiérrez-Adán, A. (2010) Selection against spermatozoa with fragmented DNA after postovulatory mating depends on the type of damage. Reprod Biol Endocrinol 8:9.Google Scholar
Twigg, J. P., Irvine, D. S. and Aitken, R. J. (1998) Oxidative damage to DNA in human spermatozoa does not preclude pronucleus formation at intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Hum Reprod 13:1864–1871.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, D. Y., Liu, M. L., Clarke, G. N. and Baker, H. W. (2007) Hyperactivation of capacitated human sperm correlates with the zona pellucida-induced acrosome reaction of zona pellucida-bound sperm. Hum Reprod 22:2632–2638.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nishimura, H., Kim, E., Nakanishi, T. and Baba, T. (2004) Possible function of the ADAM1a/ADAM2 Fertilin complex in the appearance of ADAM3 on the sperm surface. J Biol Chem 279:34957–34962.Google Scholar
Aitken, R. J. and Roman, S. D. (2008) Antioxidant systems and oxidative stress in the testes. Adv Exp Med Biol 636:154–171.Google Scholar
Aitken, R. J. and Baker, M. A. (2013) Oxidative stress, spermatozoa and leukocytic infiltration: relationships forged by the opposing forces of microbial invasion and the search for perfection. J Reprod Immunol 100:11–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leitch, A. E., Duffin, R., Haslett, C. and Rossi, A. G. (2008) Relevance of granulocyte apoptosis to resolution of inflammation at the respiratory mucosa. Mucosal Immunol 1:350–363.Google Scholar
Uribe, P., Cabrillana, M. E., Fornés, M. W., Treulen, F., Boguen, R., Isachenko, V., et al. (2018) Nitrosative stress in human spermatozoa causes cell death characterized by induction of mitochondrial permeability transition-driven necrosis. Asian J Androl 20:600–607.Google Scholar
Aitken, R. J. and Clarkson, J. S. (1988) Significance of reactive oxygen species and antioxidants in defining the efficacy of sperm preparation techniques. J Androl 9:367–376.Google Scholar
Krausz, C., Mills, C., Rogers, S., Tan, S. L. and Aitken, R. J. (1994) Stimulation of oxidant generation by human sperm suspensions using phorbol esters and formyl peptides: relationships with motility and fertilization in vitro. Fertil Steril 62:599–605.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aitken, R. J., Buckingham, D. W., West, K. and Brindle, J. (1996) On the use of paramagnetic beads and ferrofluids to assess and eliminate the leukocytic contribution to oxygen radical generation by human sperm suspensions. Am J Reprod Immunol 35:541–551.Google Scholar
Neuwinger, J., Cooper, T. G., Knuth, U. A. and Nieschlag, E. (1991) Hyaluronic acid as a medium for human sperm migration tests. Hum Reprod 6:396–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perry, R. L., Barratt, C. L., Warren, M. A. and Cooke, I. D. (1996) Comparative study of the effect of human cervical mucus and a cervical mucus substitute, Healonid, on capacitation and the acrosome reaction of human spermatozoa in vitro. Hum Reprod 11:1055–1062.Google Scholar
Wikland, M., Wik, O., Steen, Y., Qvist, K., Söderlund, B. and Janson, P. O. (1987) A self-migration method for preparation of sperm for in-vitro fertilization. Hum Reprod 2:191–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yamanaka, M., Tomita, K., Hashimoto, S., Matsumoto, H., Satoh, M., Kato, H., et al. (2016) Combination of density gradient centrifugation and swim-up methods effectively decreases morphologically abnormal sperms. J Reprod Dev 62:599–606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suarez, S. S. and Wu, M. (2017) Microfluidic devices for the study of sperm migration. Mol Hum Reprod 23:227–234.Google Scholar
Zaferani, M., Cheong, S. H. and Abbaspourrad, A. (2018) Rheotaxis-based separation of sperm with progressive motility using a microfluidic corral system. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115:8272–8277.Google Scholar
Li, K., Li, R., Ni, Y., Sun, P., Liu, Y., Zhang, D. and Huang, H. (2018) Novel distance-progesterone-combined selection approach improves human sperm quality. J Transl Med 16:203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flegel, C., Vogel, F., Hofreuter, A., Schreiner, B. S., Osthold, S., Veitinger, S., et al. (2016) Characterization of the olfactory receptors expressed in human spermatozoa. Front Mol Biosci 2:73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Armon, L., Ben-Ami, I., Ron-El, R. and Eisenbach, M. (2014) Human oocyte-derived sperm chemoattractant is a hydrophobic molecule associated with a carrier protein. Fertil Steril 102:885–890.Google Scholar
Bahat, A., Caplan, S. R. and Eisenbach, M. (2012) Thermotaxis of human sperm cells in extraordinarily shallow temperature gradients over a wide range. PLoS One 7:e41915.Google Scholar
Li, Z., Liu, W., Qiu, T., Xie, L., Chen, W., Liu, R., et al. (2014) The construction of an interfacial valve-based microfluidic chip for thermotaxis evaluation of human sperm. Biomicrofluidics 8:024102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kieslinger, D. C., Hao, Z., Vergouw, C. G., Kostelijk, E. H., Lambalk, C. B. and Le Gac, S. (2015) In vitro development of donated frozen-thawed human embryos in a prototype static microfluidic device: a randomized controlled trial. Fertil Steril 103:680–686.e2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, J., Fang, R., Chen, L., Chen, D., Xiao, J. P., Yang, W., et al. (2016). Noninvasive chromosome screening of human embryos by genome sequencing of embryo culture medium for in vitro fertilization. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 113:11907–11912.Google Scholar
Gorus, F. K. and Pipeleers, D. G. (1981) A rapid method for the fractionation of human spermatozoa according to their progressive motility. Fertil Steril 35:662–665.Google Scholar
Hyne, R. V., Stojanoff, A., Clarke, G. N., Lopata, A. and Johnston, W. I. (1986) Pregnancy from in vitro fertilization of human eggs after separation of motile spermatozoa by density gradient centrifugation. Fertil Steril 45:93–96.Google Scholar
Gomez, E., Buckingham, D. W., Brindle, J., Lanzafame, F., Irvine, D. S. and Aitken, R. J. (1996) Development of an image analysis system to monitor the retention of residual cytoplasm by human spermatozoa: correlation with biochemical markers of the cytoplasmic space, oxidative stress, and sperm function. J Androl 17:276–287.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koppers, A. J., Mitchell, L. A., Wang, P., Lin, M. and Aitken, R. J. (2011) Phosphoinositide 3-kinase signalling pathway involvement in a truncated apoptotic cascade associated with motility loss and oxidative DNA damage in human spermatozoa. Biochem J 436:687–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aitken, R. J. (2018) Not every sperm is sacred: a perspective on male infertility. Mol Hum Reprod 24:287–298.Google Scholar
Walters, J. L. H., De Iuliis, G. N., Dun, M. D., Aitken, R. J, McLaughlin, E. A., Nixon, B., et al. (2018) Pharmacological inhibition of arachidonate 15-lipoxygenase protects human spermatozoa against oxidative stress. Biol Reprod 98:784–794.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aitken, R. J., Finnie, J. M., Muscio, L., Whiting, S., Connaughton, H. S., Kuczera, L., et al. (2014) Potential importance of transition metals in the induction of DNA damage by sperm preparation media. Hum Reprod 29:2136–2147.Google Scholar
Muratori, M., Tarozzi, N., Cambi, M., Boni, L., Iorio, A. L., Passaro, C., et al. (2016) Variation of DNA Fragmentation levels during density gradient sperm selection for assisted reproduction techniques: a possible new male predictive parameter of pregnancy? Medicine (Baltimore) 95:e3624.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, C., Nixon, B. and Aitken, R. J. (2005) Development of a novel electrophoretic system for the isolation of human spermatozoa. Hum Reprod 20:2261–2270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fleming, S. D., Ilad, R. S., Griffin, A. M., Wu, Y., Ong, K. J., Smith, H. C., et al. (2008) Prospective controlled trial of an electrophoretic method of sperm preparation for assisted reproduction: comparison with density gradient centrifugation. Hum Reprod 23:2646–2651.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ainsworth, C. J., Nixon, B. and Aitken, R. J. (2011) The electrophoretic separation of spermatozoa: an analysis of genotype, surface carbohydrate composition and potential for capacitation. Int J Androl 34:e422–e434.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aitken, R. J., Hanson, A. R. and Kuczera, L. (2011) Electrophoretic sperm isolation: optimization of electrophoresis conditions and impact on oxidative stress. Hum Reprod 26:1955–1964.Google Scholar
Simon, L., Murphy, K., Aston, K. I., Emery, B. R., Hotaling, J. M. and Carrell, D. T. (2016) Optimization of microelectrophoresis to select highly negatively charged sperm. J Assist Reprod Genet 33:679–688.Google Scholar
Chan, P. J., Jacobson, J. D., Corselli, J. U. and Patton, W. C. (2006)A simple zeta method for sperm selection based on membrane charge. Fertil Steril 85:481–486.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. E., Confino, E. and Jeyendran, R. S. (1996) Glass wool column filtration versus mini-Percoll gradient for processing poor quality semen samples. Fertil Steril 66:459–462.Google Scholar
Aitken, R. J., Bronson, R., Smith, T. B. and De Iuliis, G. N. (2013) The source and significance of DNA damage in human spermatozoa: a commentary on diagnostic strategies and straw man fallacies. Mol Hum Reprod 19:475–485.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×