P-23: Is There An Association between HOST Grades and Sperm Quality

Background: Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) can be considered the solstice in vitro insemination technique because it has powerfully allowed the treatment of male factor infertility, but in this procedure, except visual morphological selection, there is no standardization for sperm selection. Recently, hypo osmotic swelling test (HOST) has been proposed to have the potential to select intact sperm. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of this technique to select functional sperm in terms of apoptosis, morphology, nuclear and membrane integrity. Materials and Methods: Twenty semen samples were randomly collected from men attending the andrology unit. Semen samples were washed, exposed to hypotonic condition, then fixed and simultaneously assessed for abnormal morphology, DNA fragmentation and protamine deficiency using papanicoulau, TUNEL and CMA3 staining, in different HOST grades, respectively. For the assessment of membrane integrity or early apoptosis, the remaining semen samples were washed with Ca buffer and stained by Annexin V. Subsequently, Annexin stained samples were exposed to hypo osmotic conditions. Results: Healthy sperm were observed in HOST graded “d” and “c” while sperm with HOST grade “g” presented the highest degree of anomalies and frequency of apoptosis, morphology, nuclear and membrane integrity. Conclusion: Addition of HOST into the sperm selection procedure may provide a valuable tool for selection of functional sperm required for ICSI. Furthermore, selection of sperm with HOST grade “g” should be avoided during ICSI.