- It increases healthy pregnancy chances, saving time, effort and money
- Compared to conventional screenings, it detects the percentage of sperm with malfunction of its DNA integrity, that causes miscarriages or failure of assisted reproduction techniques
- 60% of men with sperm DNA fragmentation become fathers thanks to MACS V technique
Valencia (13-04-12).- A state-of-the-art screening of sperm DNA increases success of assisted reproduction treatments by detecting the percentage of sperm with malfunction of its DNA integrity, which affects the semen reproductive potential.
This has been pointed out today by CREA’s co-director, Dr. Miguel Ruiz Jorro, who has stressed out that cases of men presenting some genetic alteration in their sperm DNA, which causes failure in assisted reproduction treatments or even repeated miscarriages, are on the increase.
CREA’s co-director, one of the first reproductive medicine centers to perform “the dynamic sperm DNA assay” instead than conventional screenings, has pointed out that this state-of-the-art screening “increases the chances of achieving a healthy pregnancy, saving time, effort and money”.
According to Dr. Ruiz Jorro, this screening is more effective as, unlike traditional semen analysis, it shows if the sperm has genetic alterations that might jeopardize the embryonic development.
Crea’s co-director has explained that “Regardless of men’s semen quality, many spermatozoids present a malfunction in its DNA integrity, that is, they have its DNA broken in one or more points of both chains, which often cannot be repaired by the oocytes”.
In this line, he has remarked that this screening shows that “although initially some patients do not present a high percentage of sperm with broken DNA, it has been demonstrated that its molecule is very unstable, delicate and can easily break itself during assisted reproduction treatments”
For this reason – Dr. Ruiz Jorro added – as to identify these patients, we perform a study of the sperm DNA fragmentation dynamics during 24 hours to detect the sperm DNA that is subject to experience breakages in its chain, in order to perform the best reproductive medicine treatment to achieve gestation. The dynamic evaluation of sperm DNA fragmentation offers a much more useful and complete information compared to an isolated and static determination.
According to CREA’s co-director, for patients presenting instability of sperm DNA, the solution to increase chances of a healthy pregnancy is to achieve that fertilizing sperm has its DNA not broken and this can be obtained through immunomagnetic selection of sperm by MACS (Magnetic Activated Cell Sorting) technique.
60% of men with sperm DNA fragmentation become fathers thanks to MACS V technique
Dr. Ruiz has stated that currently 60% of men with sperm DNA fragmentation become fathers thanks to state-of-the-art MACS V technique. CREA is reference on a national scale in the performance of this technique, thanks to the exclusive cooperation with Dr. Vanesa Y. Rawe, pioneer on the use of this spermatic selection worldwide.
This technique allows selecting the sperm with integral (not fragmented) DNA, thus achieving a higher possibility of obtaining a healthy embryo with higher chances of implantation and normal evolutionary development.
As explained by Dr. Miguel Ruiz Jorro, Head of the Andrology Department at CREA “through this technique it is possible to significantly improve pregnancy rates, as it allows transferring genetically healthy embryos in cases of couples where a higher percentage of Sperm DNA Fragmentation caused that previous conventional treatments didn’t generate any viable embryo”.
In this line, he has also mentioned that this method is more safe, effective and simple than the treatments performed until now, as it only requires the collection of one semen sample for the subsequent immunomagnetic sperm treatment.
Dr. Miguel Ruiz Jorro has clarified that the MACS technique allows simplifying treatment for these patients as before it was necessary to extract the sperm from the testicle performing a Biopsy under local anesthesia.
“Pregnancy rate also improved in those cases, but the risk of aspiring immature spermatozoids with worst fertilization capacity was higher and the selection of sperm with integral DNA was unspecific, unlike with the MACS technique”. In this sense, he added that this new technique “apart from being not aggressive and painless, allows a specific selection of sperm with higher chances of presenting a normal DNA and giving rise to embryos with higher chances of implantation and healthy evolutionary development.”
