DNA Fragmentation in Sperm Cells: Review Article
DNA fragmentation in sperm cells is a relatively new concept that has discovered that the probability of conception occurring is partly dependant on the quality of the male partner’s sperm cells. Earlier, it was believed that if a man had sperm that was live, motile and had a normal morphology, then an inability of the female partner to get pregnant through IVF/ICSI was probably due to the quality of the female egg tissue. However, then couples began to discover that even if they used surrogates or the eggs of established donors, they were unable to conceive. Then the concept of DNA fragmentation was introduced, which stated that the quality of the sperm is also dependant on the amount of damage done to its DNA or the amount in DNA fragmentation. The DNA in all cells is arranged in the form of a double helix, a structure that looks like a twisted ladder. If the rungs of this ladder break then the DNA will be unable to function properly. Not only that, but a sperm cell with high DNA fragmentation may not show any outwardly sign, i.e., neither its motility nor its morphology may be affected. (1) Thus, although several studies have shown that there is a high correlation between the degree of DNA fragmentation and the probability of normal pregnancy and childbirth, there are still some studies that say that although there is a correlation it is not strong enough to be used as a parameter in clinical practice.
