ABSTRACT
Background: sperm processing methods separate motile sperms with good morphology from dead and abnormal forms of sperms, immature germ cells, and non-sperm cells
Objective: the propose of this study was to compare the efficacy of upstream and swim-up processing techniques to separate sperms with the high quality especially in relation to sperm chromatin integrity
Materials and Methods: this experimental study used semen samples from 60 normozoospermic men. Specimens were divided into equal aliquots for processing by swim up [group A], and upstream [group B] methods and compare with control by raw semen [group C]. Sperm concentration, morphology, motility, DNA fragmentation and chromatin maturation were measured in these three groups
Results: the results revealed that sperm concentration in the swim up samples was significantly greater than upstream samples [p/= 0.4]. In addition, sperm DNA fragmentation and chromatin maturation were not significantly different between the three groups [p >/= 0.1]
Conclusion: according to results, apparently the upstream method had no significant efficiency to separate good quality sperms compare to swim up. Therefore, swim up seems to be a simple, inexpensive, reliable and widely available method with an efficient yield to separate motile sperm with good morphology and better chromatin integrity for insemination in the infertility clinics