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Updated: May 7, 2026

Flow Cytometric Analysis of Biomarkers for Detecting Human Sperm Functional Defects
Published on: April 21, 2022
Bulky DNA adducts in human sperm associated with semen parameters and sperm DNA fragmentation in infertile men: a
Guixiang Ji1, Lifeng Yan, Shengmin Wu
1State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Institute of Toxicology/Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China. aihuagu@njmu.edu.cn.
Background:
DNA adducts are widely used marker of DNA damage induced by environmental pollutants. The present study was designed to explore whether sperm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-DNA adducts were associated with sperm DNA integrity and semen quality.
Methods:
A total of 433 Han Chinese men were recruited from an infertility clinic. Immunofluorescence was applied to analyze sperm PAH-DNA adducts. Sperm DNA fragmentation was detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (Tdt)-mediated dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay.
Results:
After adjustment for potential confounders using linear regression, sperm PAH-DNA adducts were negatively associated with sperm concentration, total sperm count, sperm motility, and curvilinear velocity (VCL). In addition, a positive relationship between sperm PAH-DNA adducts and sperm DNA fragmentation was found.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggested an inverse association between sperm PAH-DNA adducts and semen quality, and provided the first epidemiologic evidence of an adverse effect of PAH-DNA adducts on sperm DNA integrity.
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