The COMET ASSAY-assisted determination of sperm DNA damage in infertile males

Infertility is the condition when pregnancy is not achieved within a one-year period in couples who do not use any contraceptive method. Male infertility is the only reason in 10-30% of the infertile couples, and in 15-30% of the couples it goes together with a problem in the female so it is found in about 50% of cases.Today, spermiogram analysis is used routinely in the evaluation of the male individual. Thanks to this analysis, the underlying reason in about 40-60% of the male infertility can be found out but the main reason of the problem cannot be fully understood in 50% and it is classified as idiopathic infertility. For those patients, new tests are required to make a diagnosis and to guide the treatment. In this context, most emphasis has been put on ?Sperm DNA Damage? in recent years.In this study, it was planned to determine the DNA damage in the infertile males with COMET ASSAY, a method which is simple, cheap, sensitive and reliable. For this purpose, the sperm DNA damage of 20 normospermic, 20 oligospermic, 20 asthenospermic and 20 teratospermic cases was calculated and the relationship between sperm parameters and DNA damage was assessed. Also, the microinjection of a case with 85% short-tailed and 100% head anomaly was performed. Following the microinjection, fertilization, cleavage and pregnancy were monitored and its relation to DNA damage was also studied.As a result of the examinations, the mean % value of undamaged DNA was 92.49 ± 7.92 in the normospermic group, 64.32 ± 32.08 in the teratospermic group, 52.32 ± 26.59 in the oligospermic group and 47.09 ± 35.48 in the asthenospermic group and it was observed that % value of undamaged DNA in normospermic group was significantly (p<0,001) greater than the others. Also, it was pointed out that DNA damage did not prevent the pronucleus formation but it diminished the embryo quality and affected pregnancy negatively.