Correlation study between sperm concentration, hyaluronic acid-binding capacity and sperm aneuploidy in Hungarian patients

Infertile men with low sperm concentration and/or less motile spermatozoa have an increased risk of producing aneuploid spermatozoa. Selecting spermatozoa by hyaluronic acid (HA) binding may reduce genetic risks such as chromosomal rearrangements and numerical aberrations. Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) has been used to evaluate the presence of aneuploidies. This study examined spermatozoa of 10 oligozoospermic, 9 asthenozoospermic, 9 oligoasthenozoospermic and 17 normozoospermic men by HA binding and FISH. Mean percentage of HA-bound spermatozoa in the normozoospermic group was 81%, which was significantly higher than in the oligozoospermic (P < 0.001), asthenozoospermic (P < 0.001) and oligoasthenozoospermic (P < 0.001) groups. Disomy of sex chromosomes (P = 0.014) and chromosome 17 (P = 0.0019), diploidy (P = 0.03) and estimated numerical chromosome aberrations (P = 0.004) were significantly higher in the oligoasthenozoospermic group compared with the other groups. There were statistically significant relationships (P < 0.001) between sperm concentration and HA binding (r = 0.658), between sperm concentration and estimated numerical chromosome aberrations (r = -0.668) and between HA binding and estimated numerical chromosome aberrations (r = -0.682). HA binding and aneuploidy studies of spermatozoa in individual cases allow prediction of reproductive prognosis and provision of appropriate genetic counselling. (C) 2012, Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.