Efficacy of migration-sedimentation compared to methodswith centrifugation for sperm preparation

In our study, the effectiveness of semen preparation using migration-sedimentation method was evaluated and compared to centrifugation based methods. Male patients who applied to Ankara University School of Medicine Center for Assisted Reproduction and had forward progressive motile sperm rate above 10% in their ejaculate were included in the study. Spermatozoa that selected by two different methods (centrifuge-gradient-swim-up; SGS, migration-sedimentation; MS) were investigated and compared according to motility, concentration, morphology, viability, DNA fragmentation and presence of persistent histones. The concentration and motility of sperm in MS group was better improved than the SGS group, but the difference between groups was not found significant. Similarly, in SGS and MS groups respectively; sperm with normal morphology rate was 12.19% ± 6.45 vs. 10.67% ± 5.44, survival rate was 74.09% ± 16.65 vs. 70.45% ± 16.78, DNA fragmentation rate was 3.91% ± 3.96, vs. 2.95% ± 3.33, presence of persistent histone ratio was 10.59% ± 13.40, vs 8.86% ± 7.89 and none of the difference between the experimental groups was statistically significant. As a result, migration-sedimentation method, compared to centrifugation used in gradient-swim-up combination was evaluated to be similarly effective. To conclude, migration sedimentation was assessed to be a safe method for sperm selection for patients with normal motility. Key words: centrifugation, infertility, migration-sedimentation, sperm selection