Non-apoptotic Sperm Selection

Abstract

Apoptosis plays an important role in the pathogenesis of male infertility. Failure of fertilization in assisted reproduction (ART) despite the use of morphologically normal and motile spermatozoa may be due to an ongoing process of apoptosis. Therefore, the use of apoptotic spermatozoa may be one of the reasons behind the suboptimal success rates in ART. Sperm selection methods currently used routinely in conjunction with ART procedures lack the ability to specifically target apoptotic spermatozoa. To address this deficiency, a protocol that includes the selection of non-apoptotic spermatozoa using magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS) has been proposed.