Novel Methods For Sperm Preparation Steven Fleming PhD

Cervical mucus is known to differentially select viable spermatozoa and to act as a natural barrier to non-viable spermatozoa. However, the clinical application of assisted reproduction technology bypasses this natural selection process. Various constituents of seminal plasma stabilize the sperm membrane and prevent capacitation and hyperactivation, which are necessary for fertilisation. Therefore, efficient separation of spermatozoa from seminal plasma is a fundamental requirement for IVF and IUI. Many different methods have been developed for separating human spermatozoa from seminal plasma including swim-up, self-migration sedimentation, glass wool filtration, sperm entrapment and microfluidics. However, the gold standard is discontinuous density gradient centrifugation through polyvinylpyrrolidone- or silane-coated colloidal silica particles in suspension. Unfortunately, separation of spermatozoa on the basis of density alone does not ensure that the separated fraction only contains normal spermatozoa. Indeed, the possibility of inducing DNA damage within the embryo through the use of defective spermatozoa in standard IVF protocols has been debated for some time now. In this respect, sperm DNA integrity is believed to impact upon various treatment outcomes, including embryo viability, the maintenance of pregnancy and disease in the offspring. In view of this, various novel systems have been developed to separate genetically normal spermatozoa with intact DNA, including electrokinetic separation, selective binding of spermatozoa to hyaluronic acid, the hypo-osmotic swelling test and the use of high magnification systems to morphologically select spermatozoa for ICSI.