Sperm DNA fragmentation: major discovery.
I just finished reading a paper from John Aitken’s laboratory published in Journal of Cell Science last Friday. This paper talks about sperm DNA repair and sperm DNA fragmentation.
This laboratory just showed that, contrarily to what was always thought, sperm actually can initiate DNA repair. They do it using an enzyme called OGG1, especially in the case of DNA damage induced by oxidative stress. When OGG1 pulls out the oxidized guanine molecule from the DNA structure in order to initiate the repair, it causes sperm DNA fragmentation locally. Sperm DNA fragmentation caused by OGG1 is typical of spermatozoa because other cell types have additional enzymes that will complete the DNA repair until the breach is entirely fixed. Spermatozoa can’t do that partly because DNA is too tightly packaged and partly because the enzymes required don’t have access to the nucleus being confined to another region of the cell. Thereby, the sperm DNA fragmentation generated by OGG1 has its own chemical signature. Therefore, it is shown in this paper that some popular technique to detect DNA fragmentation is not efficient in this case, and is misleading. On the opposite, the sperm DNA fragmentation analysis that Nasci offers you is efficient in this case.
So it appears that sperm DNA fragmentation is a parameter that must be evaluated using a method specially designed to suit spermatozoa. DNA fragmentation in other cell types may be analyzed by many techniques but sperm DNA fragmentation seems to be better evaluated by the very same method that Nasci offers.
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You may click here for an appointment for sperm DNA fragmentation analysis.
Thank you!
Dr Mathieu Boilard, Ph.D.
President, Nasci Biologie Médicale