Sd. Perreault et al., Evaluation of aneuploidy and DNA damage in human spermatozoa: applicationsin field studies, ANDROLOGIA, 32(4-5), 2000, pp. 247-254
With the goal of incorporating measures of sperm nuclear integrity in an ep
idemiology study, semen samples from young Czech men were analysed for sper
m aneuploidy and sperm chromatin structure in addition to routine measures
of sperm production and quality. The exposure in question was to high seaso
nal air pollution containing reactive polyaromatic hydrocarbons potentially
capable of affecting spermatogenesis and damaging sperm DNA. The sperm ane
uploidy assay uses fluorescence in situ hybridization to label selected spe
rm chromosomes; as applied in this study, the sex chromosomes (X,Y) and chr
omosome 8 were targeted. The sperm chromatin structure assay detects sperm
nuclei with increased susceptibility to denaturation, a feature that is ass
ociated with DNA damage. Logistically, these assays were relatively easy to
incorporate into the study design. The aneuploidy assay provided informati
on suggesting that exposure to high levels of air pollution may increase th
e risk of sperm aneuploidy and that it is important to control for exposure
to cigarette smoke and/or alcohol in such studies. The sperm chromatin str
ucture assay provided valuable baseline information about Czech semen donor
s and data suggestive of an adverse effect of smoking and air pollution on
spermatozoa that merits further investigation.