http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/04/26/humrep.des148.short
This article is now available free online and is worth reading.
Lots of IVF labs now do sperm DNA fragmentation testing; and when the IVF cycle fails, they
" blame " the sperm for the implantation failure. This makes sense to the patient - after all, doesn't the sperm contribute 50% of the genes to the embryo ? And if the sperm's DNA is abnormal, then doesn't it logically follow that the embryo created by these sperm is also likely to have abnormal DNA , which means it's more likely to result in implantation failure ?
This paper shows that this reasoning is flawed - and that there is no correlation between abnormal DNA in the sperm and IVF failure.
Here's the abstract - and you can read the full text as well. Please share this with your doctor !
BACKGROUND The
aneuploidy rate is higher in poor-quality sperm samples, which also have
higher DNA fragmentation index values. The aim
of this study was to assess the relationship
between sperm DNA fragmentation in samples from infertile men belonging
to couples
with recurrent miscarriage or implantation
failure and the aneuploidy rate in spermatozoa as well as in embryos
from patients.
METHODS This prospective study evaluated DNA damage and the aneuploidy rate in fresh and processed (density gradient centrifugation)
ejaculated sperm as well as the aneuploidy rate in biopsied embryos from fertility cycles.
RESULTS A total of 154
embryos were evaluated from 38 patients undergoing PGD cycles; 35.2% of
the embryos were chromosomally normal.
Analysis of the same sperm samples showed an
increased DNA fragmentation after sperm preparation in 76% of the
patients. There
was no correlation between DNA fragmentation and
the aneuploidy rate in embryos or in fresh or processed sperm samples.
CONCLUSIONS Sperm DNA
fragmentation is not related to chromosomal anomalies in embryos from
patients with recurrent miscarriage or implantation
failure.
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