Submission Number: RON-4-33-19

Abstract Number: 590

THE MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TESTICULAR SPERMATOZOA AND THEIR RELATION WITH THE ETIOLOGY OF AZOOSPERMIA.

Haim Yavetz ¹, Leah Yogev ¹, Sandra Kleiman ¹, Amnon Botchan ¹, Ron Hauser ¹, Nurit Winkler ², B Almog ², Gedalia Paz ¹ and JB Lessing ²

The Institute for the Study of Fertility, Lis Maternity Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel ¹
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lis Maternity Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel ²

Abstract:
Testicular spermatozoa are used for Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in azoospermic men with remarkable fertilization rate and pregnancy outcome. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the morphology of testicular spermatozoa by three different determinants and to find its association with the etiology of azoospermia. Testicular sperm extraction (TESE) was performed in 50 men. Sperm cells were evaluated and morphology was evaluated in 27 testicular biopsies (54%). Of them 20 men had non-obstructive and 7 men with obstructive azoospermia. In 17 cases 2 biopsies were obtained from two different locations of the testis. Wet smears were obtained by bringing the piece of excised testicular tissue in contact with a glass slide. The cells were fixed and stained by Papanicolaou procedure. Only mature spermatozoa presenting full-grown tail (tail dimension about 10-fold head dimension) were counted. Three characteristics of sperm morphology were evaluated: head dimensions, acrosome and mid-piece irregularities. The percent of spermatozoa with normal head dimensions were 76 3.2% and 63 2.6% (p > 0.05); normal acrosome 58 4.6% and 41 3.4% (p < 0.05); and normal mid-piece 74 4.1% and 67 1.6% (p > 0.05), respectively. No significant differences were observed in sperm morphology between different locations of the testis. Serum FSH and LH were inversely correlated with the rate of normal morphology of testicular spermatozoa (r = -0.49 and r = -0.47, respectively; p < 0.05). It can be concluded that a relatively high portion of testicular sperm is morphologically normal. The higher rate of normal form-spermatozoa in obstructive azoospermia as compared to the non-obstructive entity suggests that the factors leading to azoospermia might affect testicular sperm morphology. .

Keywords: spermatozoa, morphology, spermatogenesis, TESE, ICSI

This abstract is being presented at: 8:00 AM in session:
Spermatogenesis