The post-coital test evaluates the penetration of spermatozoa into cervical mucus; it relies on subjective measurements and therefore lacks precision. Enzymatic liquefaction of cervical mucus allows sperm concentration to be measured in post-coital test samples, but the reliability of such measurements is not known. Donor cervical mucus was used as a model to test the accuracy and sensitivity o...

Aim of the present study is to investigate the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and lipid peroxidation end product, malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration in seminal plasma of fertile and infertile men and its relationship with different spermatozoa parameters. Semen samples were collected from 15 fertile men (normozoospermic as control) and 40 infertile men (15 oligozoospermic, 17 asthenozoosperm...

This study investigated the effects of long-term (24h) in-vitro sperm incubation at room temperature (RT; 23°C) versus testis temperature (35°C) on various sperm-quality parameters. Semen samples (n=41) were prepared both by density-gradient centrifugation (DGC) and the swim-up technique in order to compare the influence of sperm preparation on sperm quality after incubation. Progressive motili...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to analyse the effect of a history of febrile illness on semen quality. METHODS Twenty-seven healthy men (median age 24.4 years) were followed with monthly semen samples and a daily record of the occurrence of experienced febrile episodes over a 16 month period between March 1998 and June 1999 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Semen samples were analysed for sem...

The fertility potential of patients with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) depends on sperm extraction from the tissue sample and then in vitro fertilization with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI). Unfortunately, there is no consensus regarding predictors that can identify nonobstructive azoospermic men with a potentially high yield at the time of sperm extraction. This article analyze...

Females of internally fertilizing species can significantly extend sperm lifespan and functionality during sperm storage. The mechanisms for such delayed cellular senescence remain unknown. Here, we apply current hypotheses of cellular senescence developed for diploid cells to sperm cells, and empirically test opposing predictions on the relationship between sperm metabolic rate and oxygen radi...

BACKGROUND Declining fertility of couples from the fourth decade of life is largely attributable to the drop in female fertility. However, increasing numbers of men, whose fertility theoretically lasts until death, are seeking fertility treatment at older ages, yet there is little information on sperm production and function past the age of 50 years. The few studies of such older men have exami...

We consider images of boar spermatozoa obtained with an optical phase-contrast microscope. Our goal is to automatically classify single sperm cells as acrosome-intact (class 1) or acrosome-damaged (class 2). Such classification is important for the estimation of the fertilization potential of a sperm sample for artificial insemination. We segment the sperm heads and compute a feature vector for...