Abstract
Motile sperm organelle morphology examination (MSOME) involves the use of differential interference contrast microscopy (also called Nomarski contrast) at high magnification (at least 6300x) to improve the observation of live human spermatozoa. In fact, this technique evidences sperm head vacuoles that are not necessarily seen at lower magnifications - particularly if the vacuoles are small (i.e. occupying <4% of the sperm head’s area). However, a decade after MSOME's introduction, it is still not clear whether sperm head vacuoles are nuclear, acrosomal and/or membrane-related in nature. In an attempt to clarify this debate, we performed a systematic literature review in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The PubMed database was searched from 2001 onwards with the terms "MSOME", “human sperm vacuoles”, "high-magnification, sperm”. Out of 180 search results, 21 relevant English-language publications on the nature of human sperm head vacuoles were finally selected and reviewed. Our review of the literature prompted us to conclude that sperm-head vacuoles are nuclear in nature and are related to chromatin condensation failure and (in some cases) sperm DNA damage.
Highlights
Since the first use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in the early 1990s [1], this technique has become a powerful tool for infertile couples - in cases of severe male infertility and low sperm counts
It is well known that selection of a normal spermatozoon during ICSI does not guarantee nuclear quality or enable the detection of nuclear defects [2,3]
Given that (i) nuclear defects are known to influence early and late embryo development and (ii) injection of the acrosome into the oocyte during ICSI may harm embryo development [5], some researchers have tried to improve the quality of spermatozoon observation by establishing correlations between the morphology of a viable spermatozoon and its inherent nuclear or acrosomal qualities
Summary
Since the first use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in the early 1990s [1], this technique has become a powerful tool for infertile couples - in cases of severe male infertility and low sperm counts. Motile sperm organelle morphology examination (MSOME, using Nomarski differential interferential contrast microscopy and high magnification, >6300×) was developed in the early 2000s [6] This sperm observation technique reportedly enables better assessment of a spermatozoon’s morphology and better visualization of sperm head vacuoles – structures that are not visible ( if they are small, i.e. occupying
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