Semen analysis

About: Semen analysis is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4909 publications have been published within this topic receiving 143225 citations.

Some of the Factors Involved in Male Infertility: A Prospective Review

Abstract: Infertility is defined as the inability of couples to have a baby after one year of regular unprotected intercourse, affecting 10 to 15% of couples. According to the latest WHO statistics, approximately 50-80 million people worldwide sufer from infertility, and male factors are responsible for approximately 20-30% of all infertility cases. The diagnosis of infertility in men is mainly based on semen analysis. The main parameters of semen include: concentration, appearance and motility of sperm. Causes of infertility in men include a variety of things including hormonal disorders, physical problems, lifestyle problems, psychological issues, sex problems, chromosomal abnormalities and single-gene defects. Despite numerous efforts by researchers to identify the underlying causes of male infertility, about 70% of cases remain unknown. These statistics show a lack of understanding of the mechanisms involved in male infertility. This article focuses on the histology of testicular tissue samples, the male reproductive structure, factors affecting male infertility, strategies available to find genes involved in infertility, existing therapeutic methods for male infertility, and sperm recovery in infertile men.

SpermBlue®: A new universal stain for human and animal sperm which is also amenable to automated sperm morphology analysis

Abstract: Our study was aimed at exploring a simple procedure to stain differentially the acrosome, head, midpiece, and flagellum of human and animal sperm. A further prerequisite was that sperm morphology of the stained samples could be analyzed using automated sperm morphology analysis (ASMA). We developed a new staining process using SpermBlue fixative and SpermBlue stain, which are iso-osmotic in relation to semen. The entire fixation and staining processes requires only 25 min. Three main steps are required. First, a routine sperm smear is made by either using semen or sperm in a diluting medium. The smear is allowed to air dry at room temperature. Second, the smear is fixed for 10 min by either placing the slide with the dried smear in a staining tray containing SpermBlue fixative or by adding 1 ml SpermBlue fixative to the slide. Third, the fixed smear is stained for 15 min by either immersing the slide in a staining tray containing SpermBlue stain or adding four drops of SpermBlue stain to the fixed smear. The stained slide is dipped gently in distilled water followed by air drying and mounting in DPX or an equivalent medium. The method is simple and suitable for field conditions. Sperm of human, three monkey species, horse, boar, bull, ram, mouse, rat, domestic chicken, fish, and invertebrate species were stained successfully using the SpermBlue staining process. SpermBlue stains human and animal sperm different hues or intensities of blue. It is possible to distinguish clearly the acrosome, sperm head, midpiece, principal piece of the tail, and even the short end piece. The Sperm Class Analyzer ASMA system was used successfully to quantify sperm head and midpiece measurements automatically at either 600 x or 1000 x magnification for most of the species studied.