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Updated: Jul 25, 2026

Collection, Isolation, and Flow Cytometric Analysis of Human Endocervical Samples
Published on: July 6, 2014
Human cervical mucus can act in vitro as a selective barrier against spermatozoa carrying fragmented DNA and
P G Bianchi1, A De Agostini, J Fournier
1Clinic of Sterility, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Purpose:
We have carried out experiments to determine if human cervical mucus can act as an in vitro selective barrier against spermatozoa morphologically normal that carry genetic structural abnormalities.
Methods:
Sperm chromatin abnormalities have been evaluated by Chromomycin A3 and "endogenous" nick translation.
Results:
The data obtained have shown that spermatozoa possessing higher levels of DNA protamination are more proficient in crossing the cervical mucus barrier. Moreover, the levels of positivity to endogenous nick translation treatment was practically zero in such spermatozoa.
Conclusions:
We suggest that sperm penetration of cervical mucus could be used to select sperm preparations free of fragmented DNA or chromatin structural abnormalities for assisted reproduction.
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