effect of polyvinyl pyrrolidone on sperm membrane integrity and chromatin status

background: the aim of present study is to evaluate the effect of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (pvp) routinly used during icsi procedure on sperm membrane integrity, and sperm chromatin status. materials and methods: this study was carried out on 21 semen samples from the infertile men referring to isfahan fertility and infertility center. the processed semen samples were divided into two portions. one portion was added to ham’s f10+ 10% pvp, and the other portion was added to ham’s f10 as a control group. hypo-osmotic swelling test (host), sds, and sds+edta tests were carried out on the control and pvp groups at 15, 30, and 60min. results: the results show that sperm membrane integrity measured by host, and sperm chromatin stability measured by sds test, reduces by increasing the exposure time to pvp. however, the ability of sperm chromatin undergoing decondensation (that has been assessed by sds+edta), does not show any changes by increasing the exposure time to pvp. conclusion: the results of current study shows that reducing the exposure time of sperm to pvp may protect sperm membrane, and chromatin integrity.