Variations in the Ultrastructure Pathology of Sperm Cells

Pichugova S.V., Tulakina L.G., Kleyn А.V., Beykin J.B.

Abstrakt.

In recent years, impairment of sperm quality has
become a widely discussed issue. Male reproduction system has long
been known to be easily affected by a number of negative factors.
The issue of male infertility has gained big social and medical
significance.
Sperm analysis is the most important diagnostic technique for a
man when examining an infertile couple. However, analysing sperm
cells with the aid of an optical microscope only can provide very
limited information of their internal structure. A more detailed study
by means of an electron microscope can often reveal unsuspected
changes at ultrastructure level.
Pathological changes may affect any cell organs: “immature”
granular chromatin, acrosome agenesis or hypogenesis, impairment
in the structure of centriole and axonema, qualitative and
quantitative changes of mitochondria, fibrous dysplasia. All these
abnormalities, either functional or genetic, determine the type
of infertility (reversible or irreversible), as well as the choice of
treatment modality and reproduction tactics to achieve conception.
Electron microscopy is a useful instrument for revealing both
presence and nature of a structural abnormality resulting in infertility.

Keywords:

male infertility, a sperm cell, electron microscopy study, ultrastructure pathology, reproductive technologies.

Authors:
Pichugova Svetlana V.
Tulakina Lyudmila G.
Kleyn Aleksey V.
Municipal budgetary institution “Clinical diagnostic centre”.
Beykin Jakov B.
Institute of immunology and physiology of the Ural unit of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia
Uralskikh Rabochikh St. building 8, flat 26, Yekaterinburg, Russia, 620012.
e-mail: ekb-lem@mail.ru