Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 15|pp 5399—5411

Age-related changes in human sperm DNA integrity

Aleksandra Rosiak-Gill^1,⁶, Kamil Gill¹, Joanna Jakubik¹, Monika Fraczek², Lukasz Patorski^1,³, Dariusz Gaczarzewicz⁴, Rafał Kurzawa^5,⁶, Maciej Kurpisz², Malgorzata Piasecka¹

¹Department of Histology and Developmental Biology, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Szczecin 71-210, Poland
²Institute of Human Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 60-479, Poland
³Department of Gynecology, Endocrinology and Gynecological Oncology, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Szczecin 71-252, Poland
⁴Department of Animal Reproduction, Biotechnology and Environmental Hygiene, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin 71-270, Poland
⁵Department of Procreative Health, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Szczecin 71-210, Poland
⁶VitroLive Fertility Clinic in Szczecin, Szczecin 70-483, Poland

Received: June 12, 2019Accepted: July 20, 2019Published: August 13, 2019

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102120

Copyright © 2019 Rosiak-Gill et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Abnormal standard semen characteristics and reduced sperm chromatin maturity can appear with increasing male age. However, the influence of paternal age on semen parameters is still controversial. Therefore, this study was designed to estimate the influence of paternal age not only on conventional semen characteristics but also on sperm DNA integrity. This research was carried out on ejaculated sperm cells obtained from men (n = 1124) aged ≥40 y and <40 y. Our data revealed a decreased semen volume and an increased percentage of DFI (sperm DNA fragmentation index) in older men compared to younger men in the entire study cohort, in men with normozoospermia and in men with abnormal semen parameters. Moreover, there was a higher incidence of sperm DNA damage (>10% DFI, low fertility potential) in the groups of men aged ≥40 y than in the groups of men aged <40 y. Older men had over twice the odds ratio for high sperm DNA damage as younger men. Our findings suggest a detrimental effect of advanced paternal age on sperm chromatin integrity. The data show that the evaluation of sperm DNA has greater clinical utility than standard semen analysis in case of male fertility potential assessment.