Impact of sperm midpiece morphology on embryo development following intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the impact of sperm midpiece morphology observed under high-power microscope on embryo development following intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Morphologically normal sperms from 57 patients undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) for male-factor infertility were selected microscopically (magnification of ×200 or 400) and subjected to motile sperm organellar morphology examination (MSOME) at high magnification of ×6000. According to the morphology of sperm medpiece, the sperms were divided into 3 groups, namely group A with a/b of 1-1.2, group B with a/b≥1.5, and group C with irregular morphology. The sperms in the 3 groups were intracytoplasmically injected in oocytes and the outcomes of the embryos were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Groups A, B, and C showed significant differences in the rate of ET-D3 top quality embryo (79.7% vs 55.6 % vs 33.3%) and implantation rate (43.2% vs 11.1% vs 0%), but not in the fertilization rate (73.3% vs 80.4% vs 63.5%), blastocyst formation rate (23.2% vs 22.2% vs 9.09%), cryopreservation rate (29.2% vs 25.0 % vs 13.0%), or D3 top quality embryo rate (35.3% vs 37.8% vs 18.8%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>In ICSI cycle, selecting morphologically normal sperms for intracytoplasic injection can increase the normal fertilization rate and top quality embryo rate on the transfer day and improve the implantation rate of the embryo.</p>

A comparative study of sperm morphology evaluation criteria by the fifth and fourth editions of WHO Laboratory Manual / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare the criteria of sperm morphology evaluation in the fifth edition of WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen and those in the fourth edition, and to know the changes in the criteria of sperm morphology evaluation in the new edition.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Nine technicians from Zhejiang Human Sperm Bank evaluated the morphology of 1 000 spermatozoa in 96 sperm morphological pictures according to the criteria in the fourth and fifth editions of WHO Laboratory Manual, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The percentage of morphologically normal sperm by the criteria of the fifth edition was (26.50 +/- 5.06)%, significantly higher than (11.39 +/- 3.17)% by the fourth edition (P < 0.05), while the rates of sperm head and tail defects based on the former were (64.26 +/- 7.66)% and (10.92 +/- 2.03)%, significantly lower than (76.11 +/- 8.18)% and (39.89 +/- 3.85)% according to the latter (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the rates of sperm midpiece defects and excessive residual cytoplasm by the fifth and fourth editions ([16.46 +/- 3.08]% vs [15.22 +/- 3.51 ]% and [4.24 +/- 1.66]% vs [3.87 +/- 1.68]%, P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The criteria of sperm morphology evaluation in the fifth edition of WHO Laboratory Manual are less strict than those in the fourth, and the percentage of morphologically normal sperm is higher according to the fifth edition.</p>

The sperm of Hylodinae species (Anura, Leptodactylidae): ultrastructural characteristics and their relevance to interspecific taxonomic relationships.

Hylodinae leptodactylids (sensu Lynch 1971) form a group of diurnal frogs, which is hypothesized on the basis of morphological traits to be the closest relatives of the dendrobatid frogs. Our study describes ultrastructural characteristics of sperm from three hylodine species (Hylodes phyllodes, Crossodactylus sp. n. and Megaelosia massarti) to reassess the intergeneric relationships within the Hylodinae, as well as the supposed relationship between the Hylodinae and Dendrobatidae. The ultrastructure of the sperm is very similar among the three species and is indicative of its conserved nature within the Hylodinae. The structure of the acrosomal complex was very similar to that of other leptodactylid species, to most of the remaining species included in the Bufonoidea lineage, and also to that observed in the dendrobatid species examined so far. Since such a structure has been considered a plesiomorphic trait, it contributes little to our understanding of the relationships between the Hylodinae and Dendrobatidae. The flagellar apparatus of Crossodactylus sp. n. is very similar to that of most leptodactylids. The sperm of Megaelosia massarti and Hylodes phyllodes display a distinctive condition in their axial and juxtaxonemal fibers. This distinctive flagellar condition expands the already known variability in sperm structure within the Leptodactylidae.