Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 9|pp 2749—2761

Male age: negative impact on sperm DNA fragmentation

Elena Albani¹, Stefano Castellano¹, Bruna Gurrieri¹, Luisa Arruzzolo¹, Luciano Negri¹, Elena M. Borroni^2,³, Paolo E. Levi-Setti¹

¹Division of Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, Department of Gynecology, Humanitas Fertility Center, Humanitas Research Hospital, 20089 Rozzano (Milan), Italy
²Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, 20089 Rozzano (Milan), Italy
³Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, 20090 Segrate (Milan), Italy

* * Equal contribution

Received: February 26, 2019Accepted: April 29, 2019Published: May 14, 2019

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101946

Copyright: Albani et al. This is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The main goal of semen processing in Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) is to select sperm with good viability and, at the same time, remove Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) sources (such as leukocytes) and reduce the percentage of morphologically abnormal sperm for fertility treatment. We performed a comparative analysis on sperm DNA fragmentation after Density Gradient Centrifugation (DGC) using products sold by two competing companies. Our results showed comparable DNA Fragmentation Index (DFI) after treatment with both DGC products. However, in both cases, a comparable number of samples do not benefit from the treatment. Interestingly, increasing evidences indicated that male age has a negative impact on sperm DNA fragmentation, but the mechanisms underlying age-dependent patterns of sperm decline have not yet been fully understood. Thus, we performed a comparative analysis of DFI before and after treatment with DGC products in age-stratified sample populations. Our results showed a worsening of the baseline DFI in the eldest group and the benefits of DGC on sperm DNA were compromised. In conclusion, our work consolidates the current evidences suggesting that both paternal and maternal aging, critically affects reproductive success.