[Correlation between cytogenetic anomalies of human spermatozoa and sperm morphology as well as age of patients studied]

Abstract

Sperm chromosomes from 15 fertile men were analyzed after fusion of their spermatozoa with zona-free hamster eggs. The total proportion of abnormal metaphases as well as the proportions of aneuploidy and structural aberrations were calculated for every man and examined for linear correlations with sperm morphology and the age of the persons studied. A positive correlation between the cytogenetic parameters and the percentage of abnormal sperm morphology was not evident, suggesting that assessment of sperm morphology cannot be used as an indicator of chromosomal damage in human spermatozoa. In contrast, there was a more distinct positive correlation between the age of donors and the three cytogenetic parameters studied. Analogous calculations for two other study groups (group S: male subfertility; group HA: habitual abortions of the wives with unknown etiology) provided less clear results that may be attributed to the lower number of patients or to the existence of special indications as mentioned above.