Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-jkvpf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-19T02:23:36.965Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 20 - DNA Damage: Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay

Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay Test on its Fortieth Anniversary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2021

By
Don Evenson
Edited by
Ashok Agarwal ,
Ralf Henkel  and
Ahmad Majzoub
Ashok Agarwal
Affiliation:
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH
Ralf Henkel
Affiliation:
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Ahmad Majzoub
Affiliation:
Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha
Get access

Summary

The year 2020 is the fortieth anniversary of the introduction of the concept of “sperm DNA fragmentation” as related to human and animal male factor fertility. This concept was introduced by Donald Evenson in a Science article (1980) that also introduced the first test for its detection, the Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA®). Sperm DNA fragmentation is defined as sperm single and double DNA strand breaks. Experiments on bulls, boars and stallions clearly show that the SCSA test identifies the highest fertile animals. Thousands of measurements on clinical human semen samples also clearly show that when more than 25 percent of sperm (DFI pecentage) in an ejaculate have measurable DNA fragmentation the probability of live birth pregnancy is significantly diminished. SCSA data on percentage DFI and Mean DFI are the same, meaning that the SCSA test measures the total of sperm DNA strand breaks detected with acridine orange staining.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Manual of Sperm Function Testing in Human Assisted Reproduction , pp. 192 - 201
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

O’Neill, CL, Palermo, GD. A worldwide profile of the utilization of sperm DNA fragmentation testing in relation to reproductive outcome. Transl Androl Urol 2017; 6: S320–S321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evenson, DP, Jost, LK, Zinaman, MJ, Clegg, E, Purvis, K, de Angelis, P, Clausen, OP. Utility of the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in the human fertility clinic. Hum Reprod 1999; 14: 1039–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evenson, DP, Darzynkiewicz, Z, Melamed, MR. Relation of mammalian sperm chromatin heterogeneity to fertility. Science 1980; 210: 1131–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tejada, RI, Mitchell, JC, Norman, A, Marik, JJ, Friedman, S. A test for the practical evaluation of male fertility by acridine orange (AO) fluorescence. Fertil Steril 1984; 42: 87–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evenson, DP. The Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA®) and other sperm DNA fragmentation tests for evaluation of sperm nuclear DNA integrity as related to fertility. Anim Reprod Sci 2016; 169: 56–75.Google Scholar
Evenson, DP, Larson, K, Jost, LK. The sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSATM): clinical use for detecting sperm DNA fragmentation related to male infertility and comparisons with other techniques. J Andrology 2002; 23: 25–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evenson, D. (2011) Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA®): detailed protocol. In Zini, A and Agarwal, A, eds., Sperm Chromatin: Biological and Clinical Applications in Male Infertility and Assisted Reproduction. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 487–97.Google Scholar
Evenson, DP, Baer, RK, Jost, LK. Long term effects of triethylenemelamine exposure on mouse testis cells and sperm chromatin structure assayed by flow cytometry. Environ Mol Mutagen 1989; 14: 79–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubes, J, Selevan, S G, Evenson, DP, Zudova, D, Vozdova, M, Zudova, Z, Robbins, WA, Perreault, S D. Episodic air pollution is associated with increased DNA fragmentation in human sperm without other changes in semen quality. Hum Reprod 2005; 20(10): 2776–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evenson, DP, Jost, L, Baer, R, Turner, T, Schrader, S. Individuality of DNA denaturation patterns in human sperm as measured by the sperm chromatin structure assay. Reprod Toxicol 1991; 5: 115–25.Google Scholar
Ballachey, BE, Hohenboken, WD, Evenson, DP. Heterogeneity of sperm nuclear chromatin structure and its relationship to fertility of bulls. Biol of Reprod 1987; 36: 915–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Didion, BA, Kasperson, KM, Wixon, R, Evenson, DP. Boar fertility and sperm chromatin structure status. Retrosp Rep J Androl 2009; 30: 1–6.Google Scholar
Evenson, DP, Darzynkiewicz, Z, Jost, L, Janca, F, Ballachey, B. Changes in accessibility of DNA to various fluorochromes during spermatogenesis. Cytometry 1986; 7: 45–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evenson, DP, Tritle, D. Characterization of SCSA resolved sperm populations by Comet assay and image analysis. IFFS 8th World Congress on Fertility and Sterility Abstract 2004.Google Scholar
Jerre, E, Bungum, M, Evenson, D, Giwercman, A. Sperm chromatin structure assay high DNA stainability sperm as a marker of early miscarriage after intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Fert Steril 2019; 12: 46–53.Google Scholar
Wyrobek, AJ, Eskenazi, B, Young, S, Arnheim, N, Tiemann-Boege, I, Jabs, EW, Glaser, RL, Pearson, FS, Evenson, D. Advancing age has differential effects on DNA damage chromatin integrity, gene mutations, and aneuploidies in sperm. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2006; 103: 9601–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Menezo, Y, Clement, P, Amar, E. Evaluation of sperm DNA structure, fragmentation and decondensation: an essential tool in the assessment of male infertility. Transl Androl Urol 2017; 6(Suppl. 4): S553–S556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cornet, D, Cohen, M, Clement, A, Amar, E, Fournols, L, Clement, P, Neveux, P, Ménézo, Y. Association between the MTHFR-C677T isoform and structure of sperm DNA. J Assist Reprod Genet 2017; 34: 1283–8.Google Scholar
Evenson, DP, Djira, G, Kasperson, K, Christianson, J. Relationships between age of 25K men attending infertility clinics and SCSA defined sperm DNA and chromatin integrity. Fertil Steril 2020; 114: 311–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bungum, M, Humaidan, P, Axmon, A, et al. Sperm DNA integrity assessment in prediction of assisted reproduction technology outcome. Hum Reprod 2007; 22: 174–9.Google Scholar
Oleszczuk, A, Giwercman, A, Bungum, M. Sperm chromatin structure assay in prediction of in vitro fertilization outcome. Andrology 2016; 4: 290–6.Google Scholar
Erenpreiss, J, Elzanaty, S, Giwercman, A. Sperm DNA damage in men from infertile couples. Asian J Androl 2008; 10(5): 786–90.Google Scholar
Evenson, DP. Evaluation of sperm chromatin structure and DNA strand breaks is an important part of clinical male fertility assessment. Transl Androl Urol 2016; 5: 935–50.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×