High deoxyribonucleic acid content of spermatozoa from infertile, oligospermic human males

A study has been carried out, by means of an indole microchemical technique, of the DNA content of spermatozoa from a group of 13 normal subjects and 13 patients affected by infertility, characterized by oligospermia with a clinical, hormonal, and testicular picture peculiar to "idiopathic spermatidic arrest." The DNA content of spermatozoa from the infertile, oligospermic patients was nearly double that of normal subjects. This finding can be explained tentatively on the basis of genetic and/or cytologic events occurring during meiosis.