ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the numerical aberration of chromosome X, Y and 18 in the spermatozoa of asthenospermia patients by triple-color fluorescence in situ hybridization.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The experiment included 10 asthenospermia patients and 5 healthy men with normal semen quality as controls. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and probes for chromosomes including X, Y and 18 were used to determine the frequency of the aneuploid of the chromosomes in spermatozoa.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 45,547 spermatozoa counted from the semen samples, the hybridization rate was 99.18%. The frequencies of the chromosome disomies including XX18, XY18, YY18, X1818 and Y1818 were (0.124 +/- -0.086)%, (0.360 +/- 0.380)%, (0.109 +/- 0.195)%, (0.342 +/- 0.746)% and (0.299 +/- 0.564)% in the case group and (0.014 +/- 0.019)%, (0.090 +/- 0.080)%, (0.030 +/- 0.031)%, (0.068 +/- 0.103)% and (0.075 +/- 0.083)% in the control. The sperm aneuploid rate was 9.25% in the former and 2.70% in the latter, with significant difference in between (P< 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Asthenospermia patients have a higher aneuploid rate of sperm chromosome than normal fertile men. However, larger samples are yet to be studied to obtain more scientific evidence.</p>