Sperm chip is a method to help select and prepare the sperm for IUI (insemination), ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection) and IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) treatments. Considering the natural sperm selection and sperm race are skipped in ICSI procedures, isolating the damaged sperm and selecting the best quality sperm becomes a more important task. As we know that DNA damage to sperm cells can decrease the implantation rate.
Causes of Sperm DNA Fragmentation;
Apoptosis or abnormalities may happen in the spermatogenesis’ process;
In the process of spermyogenesis, DNA breaks occur during the remodelling of the sperm chromatins;
Post testicular DNA fragmentations causes the oxygen radicals during the sperm passes through the seminiferous tubules and epididymis;
Endogenous caspase and endonucleases induce the DNA fragmentation;
DNA damage happens after Radiotherapy and chemotherapy;
DNA damage happens because of environmental toxic.
According to the conclusions of recent meta-analysis, DNA damaged sperms may cause miscarriages following to IVF and ICSI treatments. It should be emphasized that; finding DNA damaged sperm is a high probability in IVF/ICSI patients.
Performance Evaluation of Micro Chip
After working with Sperm Chip, collected sperms has more than 2 times viability compared to unprocessed semen (5).