COMET, TUNEL, and TEM analysis of an infertile male with short tail sperm

Male infertility is correlated with sperm morphology and sperm DNA damage, which are completely different from that of fertile individuals. An accurate sperm DNA damage analysis and ultrastructural examination of the ejaculate provide important support in the clinical evaluation. It is supposed that in the near future, the fertilization rate, pregnancy rate, and miscarriages could be predicted using the combination of these types of tests in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). For this purpose, we report a very rare case of an infertile man having short tail sperm. The infertile man and his wife underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). During this process, we examined the ultrastructure of the ejaculated sperm with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and calculated the sperm DNA damage with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) and COMET assays. Then, we evaluated the association between sperm DNA damage and embryo quality.