Digital holographic microscopy for the evaluation of human sperm structure. Issue 4 (November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Coppola, G.; Di Caprio, G.; Wilding, M.; Ferraro, P.; Esposito, G.; Di Matteo, L.; Dale, R.; Coppola, G.; Dale, B.
• Is Part Of: Zygote. Volume 22:Issue 4(2014)
• Page Start: 446
• Page End: 454
• Publication Date: 2014-11
• Subjects: Developmental biology -- Periodicals; Embryology -- Periodicals; Zygotes -- Periodicals; Gametes -- Periodicals; 571.864
• DOI: 10.1017/S0967199413000026
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0967-1994

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title>Summary</title> <p>The morphology of the sperm head has often been correlated with the outcome of <italic>in vitro</italic> fertilization, and has been shown to be the sole parameter in semen of value in predicting the success of intracytoplasmic sperm injection and intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection.</p> <p>In this paper, we have studied whether digital holographic microscopy (DHM) may be useful to obtain quantitative data on human sperm head structure and compared this technique with high-power digitally enhanced Nomarski optics. The main advantage of digital holography is that high-resolution three-dimensional quantitative sample imaging may be automatically produced by numerical refocusing of a two-dimensional image at different object planes without any mechanical scanning. We show that DHM generates useful information on the dimensions and structure of human sperm, not revealed by conventional phase-contrast microscopy, in particular the volume of vacuoles, and suggest its use as an additional prognostic tool in assisted reproduction technology.</p> </abstract>