Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Abnormal sperm concentration and motility as well as advanced paternal age compromise early embryonic development but not pregnancy outcomes: a retrospective study of 1266 ICSI cycles

  • Assisted Reproduction Technologies
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the effect of sperm concentration, motility and advanced paternal age on reproductive outcomes.

Methods

A retrospective analysis of 1266 intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles between 2013 and 2017. The cohort was divided into four groups according to semen concentration based on the WHO criteria (2010): group A (conc. <1 M/ml), group B (1 ≤ conc. <5 M/ml), group C (5 ≤ conc. < 15 M/ml) and the control group D (conc. ≥15 M/ml). The primary outcome investigated was the blastulation rate. Secondary outcomes were fertilization rate, top quality blastocyst formation rate and ongoing pregnancy rate.

Results

After adjustment for maternal age and number of oocytes recovered, a significant difference was observed between group A and group D on the rate of fertilized oocytes [66.7 (40.0–80.0) vs 75.0 (57.1–90.2), adjusted p < 0.001] and the blastocyst formation rate [50.0 (33.3–66.3) vs 55.6 (40.0–75.0), adjusted p < 0.05]. However, the male factor did not affect the top quality blastocyst formation rate nor the ongoing pregnancy rate. Considering the age of the male partner as confounding factor, at the increase of each year of age, a reduction of 0.3% on the fertilization rate was observed but no other outcome was impacted. A negative correlation was also observed between sperm motility and fertilization rate in the group with a motility <5%.

Conclusion

Male factor infertility and advanced paternal age may compromise fertilization and blastulation rates but not top quality blastocyst formation rate or the establishment of pregnancy in ICSI cycles.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Schmidt L, Sobotka T, Bentzen JG, Nyboe Andersen A. Demographic and medical consequences of the postponement of parenthood. ESHRE reproduction and society task force. Hum Reprod Update. 2012;18(1):29–43.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Mercan R, Lanzendorf SE, Mayer J Jr, Nassar A, Muasher SJ, Oehninger S. The outcome of clinical pregnancies following intracytoplasmic sperm injection is not affected by semen quality. Andrologia. 1998;30(2):91–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Nagy ZP, Liu J, Joris H, Verheyen G, Tournaye H, Camus M, et al. The result of intracytoplasmic sperm injection is not related to any of the three basic sperm parameters. Hum Reprod. 1995;10(5):1123–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Oehninger S, Veeck L, Lanzendorf S, Maloney M, Toner J, Muasher S. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection: achievement of high pregnancy rates in couples with severe male factor infertility is dependent primarily upon female and not male factors. Fertil Steril. 1995;64(5):977–81.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Mansour RT, Aboulghar MA, Serour GI, Amin YM, Ramzi AM. The effect of sperm parameters on the outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Fertil Steril. 1995;64(5):982–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Mazzilli R, Cimadomo D, Vaiarelli A, Capalbo A, Dovere L, Alviggi E, et al. Effect of the male factor on the clinical outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection combined with preimplantation aneuploidy testing: observational longitudinal cohort study of 1,219 consecutive cycles. Fertil Steril. 2017;108(6):961–972.e3.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Chapuis A, Gala A, Ferrières-Hoa A, Mullet T, Bringer-Deutsch S, Vintejoux E, et al. Sperm quality and paternal age: effect on blastocyst formation and pregnancy rates. Basic Clin Androl. 2017;27:2.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Ferreira RC, Braga DP, Bonetti TC, Pasqualotto FF, Iaconelli A Jr, Borges E Jr. Negative influence of paternal age on clinical intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycle outcomes in oligozoospermic patients. Fertil Steril. 2010;93(6):1870–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Wu Y, Kang X, Zheng H, Liu H, Huang Q, Liu J. Effect of paternal age on reproductive outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection. PLoS One. 2016;11(2):e0149867.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. He Y, Liu H, Zheng H, Li L, Fu X, Liu J. Effect of early cumulus cells removal and early rescue ICSI on pregnancy outcomes in high-risk patients of fertilization failure. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2018;15:1–5.

    Google Scholar 

  11. World Health Organization. WHO Laboratory manual for the examination and processing of human semen. 5th ed. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Sánchez-Pozo MC, Mendiola J, Serrano M, Mozas J, Björndahl L, Menkveld R, et al. Special interest Group in Andrology of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embriology. Proposal of guidelines for the appraisal of SEMen QUAlity studies (SEMQUA). Hum Reprod. 2013;28(1):10–21.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Corti L, Papaleo E, Pagliardini L, Rabellotti E, Molgora M, La Marca A, et al. Fresh blastocyst transfer as a clinical approach to overcome the detrimental effect of progesterone elevation at hCG triggering: a strategy in the context of the Italian law. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2013;171(1):73–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Calzi F, Papaleo E, Rabellotti E, Ottolina J, Vailati S, Viganò P, et al. Exposure of embryos to oxygen at low concentration in a cleavage stage transfer program: reproductive outcomes in a time-series analysis. Clin Lab. 2012;58(9–10):997–1003.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Papaleo E, Ottolina J, Viganò P, Brigante C, Marsiglio E, De Michele F, et al. Deep pelvic endometriosis negatively affects ovarian reserve and the number of oocytes retrieved for in vitro fertilization. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2011;90:878–84.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Alpha Scientists in Reproductive Medicine and ESHRE Special Interest Group of Embryology. The Istanbul consensus workshop on embryo assessment: proceedings of an expert meeting. Hum Reprod. 2011;26(6):1270–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Practice Committee of American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Criteria for number of embryos to transfer: a committee opinion. Fertil Steril. 2013;99(1):44–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Ni W, Xiao S, Qiu X, Jin J, Pan C, Li Y, et al. Effect of sperm DNA fragmentation on clinical outcome of frozen-thawed embryo transfer and on blastocyst formation. PLoS One. 2014;9(4):e94956.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Alvarez Sedó C, Bilinski M, Lorenzi D, Uriondo H, Noblía F, Longobucco V, et al. Effect of sperm DNA fragmentation on embryo development: clinical and biological aspects. JBRA Assist Reprod. 2017;21(4):343–50.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Kodama H, Yamaguchi R, Fukuda J, Kasai H, Tanaka T. Increased oxidative deoxyribonucleic acid damage in the spermatozoa of infertile male patients. Fertil Steril. 1997;68(3):519–24.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Zini A, Bielecki R, Phang D, Zenzes MT. Correlations between two markers of sperm DNA integrity, DNA denaturation and DNA fragmentation, in fertile and infertile men. Fertil Steril. 2001;75(4):674–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Derijck AA, Van der Heijden GW, Ramos L, Giele M, Kremer JA, De Boer P. Motile human normozoospermic and oligozoospermic semen samples show a difference in double-strand DNA break incidence. Hum Reprod. 2007;22(9):2368–76.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Gawecka JE, Marh J, Ortega M, Yamauchi Y, Ward MA, Ward WS. Mouse zygotes respond to severe sperm DNA damage by delaying paternal DNA replication and embryonic development. PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e56385.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Høst E, Lindenberg S, Smidt-Jensen S. DNA strand breaks in human spermatozoa: correlation with fertilization in vitro in oligozoospermic men and in men with unexplained infertility. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2000;79(3):189–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Borges E Jr, Setti AS, Braga DP, Figueira RC, Iaconelli A Jr. Total motile sperm count has a superior predictive value over the WHO 2010 cut-off values for the outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles. Andrology. 2016;4(5):880–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Zheng J, Lu Y, Qu X, Wang P, Zhao L, Gao M, et al. Decreased sperm motility retarded ICSI fertilization rate in severe Oligozoospermia but good-quality embryo transfer had achieved the prospective clinical outcomes. PLoS One. 2016;11(10):e0165684.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. Tsai YR, Lan KC, Kung FT, Lin PY, Chiang HJ, Lin YJ, et al. The effect of advanced paternal age on the outcomes of assisted reproductive techniques among patients with azoospermia using cryopreserved testicular spermatozoa. Taiwan J Obstet Gynecol. 2013;52(3):351–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Beguería R, García D, Obradors A, Poisot F, Vassena R, Vernaeve V. Paternal age and assisted reproductive outcomes in ICSI donor oocytes: is there an effect of older fathers? Hum Reprod. 2014;29(10):2114–22.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Luna M, Finkler E, Barritt J, Bar-Chama N, Sandler B, Copperman AB, et al. Paternal age and assisted reproductive technology outcome in ovum recipients. Fertil Steril. 2009;92(5):1772–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. McPherson NO, Zander-Fox D, Vincent AD, Lane M. Combined advanced parental age has an additive negative effect on live birth rates-data from 4057 first IVF/ICSI cycles. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2018;35(2):279–87.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Zhu Y, Wu QF, Zhou XJ, Xin CL, Ling G, Lu GX. ICSI improves fertilization in isolated teratozoospermic men: a study with strictly controlled external factors and WHO-5 standard. Syst Biol Reprod Med. 2013;59(1):21–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. French DB, Sabanegh ES Jr, Goldfarb J, Desai N. Does severe teratozoospermia affect blastocyst formation, live birth rate, and other clinical outcome parameters in ICSI cycles? Fertil Steril. 2010;93(4):1097–103.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy

    Alessandro Bartolacci & Enrico Papaleo

  2. Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, Reproductive Sciences Laboratory, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Via Olgettina 58, 20132, Milan, Italy

    Luca Pagliardini, Sofia Makieva & Paola Viganò

  3. Division of Experimental Oncology/Unit of Urology, URI, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy

    Andrea Salonia

  4. University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy

    Andrea Salonia

Authors
  1. Alessandro Bartolacci
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Luca Pagliardini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sofia Makieva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrea Salonia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Enrico Papaleo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Paola Viganò
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paola Viganò.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

E.P. reports consultancies with MSD, Merck-Serono, Ferring, and IBSA Institut Biochimique SA; grants from MSD, Merck-Serono, Ferring, IBSA Institut Biochimique SA and FINOX; honoraria from MSD, Merck-Serono, and Ferring; and travel expenses paid by MSD, Merck-Serono, Ferring, and IBSA Institut Biochimique SA. All the other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary Fig. 1

Representation of the dimension reduction obtained by Principal Component Analysis to resume the complexity of information related to the female partner. PC Principal Component. (PDF 137 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bartolacci, A., Pagliardini, L., Makieva, S. et al. Abnormal sperm concentration and motility as well as advanced paternal age compromise early embryonic development but not pregnancy outcomes: a retrospective study of 1266 ICSI cycles. J Assist Reprod Genet 35, 1897–1903 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-018-1256-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-018-1256-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation