Testicular biopsies from two patients with alcohol induced fertility disturbances and one patient with intact spermatogenesis were investigated with the help of histological and enzyme histochemical methods. Main alcohol induced changes include: 1. loss of typical arrangement of elongated spermatids in the form of a "bunch of grapes", dominance of duplicated form of elongated spermatids, to a large extent loss of acrosomal formation: 2. thickening, hyalinosis, and sclerosis of lamina propria with nearly complete lack of Ca++-ATPase; 3. decrease of 3 beta-hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase and 17 beta-hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase activity in the Leydig cells, and 4. appearance of oval or spindle shaped mast cells in the interstitial tissue. Lamina propria seems to be the main target of deleterious effects of alcohol.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Shape and position of the haploid peak in flow cytometric sperm histograms for the assessment of andrological diseases.

Ejaculates from 45 patients with various andrological diseases and from healthy men were analyzed by flow cytometric DNA measurements. The sperm histograms obtained by this method were subjected to mathematical analysis. The height, width and position of the haploid (1 C) peak proved to be a useful criterion for the discrimination of spermatozoa from patients with heterogeneous testicular disorders (SHTD, "mixed atrophy") and homogeneous testicular disorders (SETD) with delivery of immature spermiogenetic cells as compared to healthy persons.

DNA↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Correlation between multi-headed spermatozoa in the ejaculate and histological findings in the testis.

Semen smears of 163 patients as well as bioptic material of 163 patients (93 cases of paraffin histology and 70 cases of cryostat sections) were grouped by their content of multi-headed spermatozoa or multi-nucleated spermatids, respectively. It could be demonstrated that findings in the ejaculate concerning multi-headed spermatozoa are in good agreement with those in the testis in respect of the presence of double- and multi-nucleated spermatids. Furthermore, it could be shown that the frequency of multi-headed spermatozoa is positively correlated to inflammatory processes either of immunologic origin or caused by micro-organisms.

Cell Nucleus↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Acrosome reaction of spermatozoa with different morphology.

The acrosome reaction of human spermatozoa with different morphological disturbances was evaluated after application of the triple staining method. After triple staining, spermatozoa which display only a small or an undetectable acrosomal region in Papanicolaou-stained semen smears, turn out to be unable to perform an acrosome reaction, whereas merely post-acrosomally hyper-elongated spermatozoa show a normal ability for acrosome reaction.

Acrosome↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Comparative studies on various modes of classification of morphology of sperm heads and results in in vitro fertilization--a preliminary report.

In a retrospective blind study, Papanicolaou's stained semen smears of the husbands of 105 patients who took part in the in vitro fertilization/embryo transfer (IVF/ET) program of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in 1991, were evaluated for the rates of normal sperm heads. The patients were divided into three groups according to the results of the IVF/ET: A = no fertilized egg; B = only fertilization, no pregnancy; C = pregnancy/birth. Four different categories of the sperm heads' morphology were defined: 1) 'Ideally' normal heads (normal size, relations width to length 2/3 to 3/5, acrosomal region > or = 40 < or = 70%); 2) Normal heads with only minor deviations from the 'ideally' normal form, strictly excluding spermatozoa with inhomogeneously stained acrosomal or pointed post-acrosomal regions; 3) Sperm heads with major alterations which are nevertheless widely considered as still normal in the literature; 4) Heads which are generally accepted as pathologically formed. It could be shown that the application of the strict criteria in the categories 1 plus 2 lead to significant differences not only between the IVF/ET groups A and B or C, but also between the groups B and C.

Embryo Transfer↗