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Sperm DNA fragmentation ( SDF) has been proposed to be one of the main markers regarding male infertility. A prospective study was performed to assess primarily whether sperm DNA damage has any impact on embryological data and secondarily on pregnancy rates. This prospective study evaluated the sperm DNA damage in fresh ejaculated sperm samples from couples undergoing IVF/ ICSI treatments, using the improved SCD method, known as Halosperm®. The results were evaluated by performing statistical analysis with the statistical package of SPSS v17. A total of 156 fresh semen samples derived from 156 couples undergoing 156 IVF/ ICSI cycles. From the 156 couples, 139 finally reached the embryo transfer ( ET) procedure. Overall, SDF did not correlate with embryological data, while ongoing pregnancy rate/ ET was 21.6%. SDF only correlated with sperm characteristics. After the categorisation of SDF (≤35% and >35%), according to the specific references of the method used, embryological data were comparable as also ongoing pregnancy rates. Using the SCD method, sperm DNA damage is associated neither with embryological data nor to pregnancy rates. However, we should not rule out the fact that extremely high DNA damages are associated with total pregnancy failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Research about ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is influenced by cultural and value-based perspectives. It impacts regulations, funding, and clinical practice, and shapes the perception of ART in society. We analyze trends in the global literature on ELSI of ART between 1999 and 2019. As most output is produced by North America, Western Europe, and Australia, we focus on international research, i.e., academic articles studying a different country than that of the corresponding author., Methods: The corpus, extracted from PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, includes 7714 articles, of which 1260 involved international research. Analysis is based on titles, abstracts and keywords, classification into ART fields and Topic Modeling, the countries of corresponding author, and countries mentioned in abstracts., Results: An absolute increase in the number of international studies, and their relative proportion. Trends of decentralization are apparent, yet geographic centralization remains, which reflects an unequal distribution of research funds across countries and may result in findings that do not reflect global diversity of norms and values. Preference for studying conceptual challenges through philosophical analysis, and for fields that concern only a portion of ART cycles. Less attention was dedicated to economic analysis and barriers to access, or to knowledge of and attitudes. International studies provide an opportunity to expand and diversify the scope of ELSI research., Conclusion: We call on the research community to promote international collaborations, focus on less explored regions, and divert more attention to questions of cost, access, knowledge, and attitudes., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Purpose: A significant portion of the research on assisted reproductive technologies explores ethical, legal, and social implications. It has an impact on social perceptions, the evolution of norms of clinical practices, regulations and public funding. This paper reviews and maps the geographical distribution to test the hypothesis of geographical concentration and classifies the output by fields and topics., Methods: We queried PubMed, Scopus and the Web of Science for documents published between 1999 and 2019, excluding clinical trials and medical case reports. Documents were analyzed according to their titles, abstracts and keywords and were classified to assisted reproductive fields and by Topic Modeling. We analyzed geographic distribution., Results: Research output increased nearly tenfold. We show a trend towards decentralization of research, although at a slower rate compared with clinical assisted reproduction research. While the U.S. and the U.K.'s share has dropped, North America and Western Europe are still responsible for more than 70%, while China and Japan had limited participation in the global discussion. Fertility preservation and surrogacy have emerged as the most researched categories, while research about genetics was less prominent., Conclusions: We call to enrich researchers' perspectives by addressing local issues in ways that are tailored to local cultural values, social and economic contexts, and differently structured healthcare systems. Researchers from wealthy centers should conduct international research, focusing on less explored regions and topics. More research on financial issues and access is required, especially regarding regions with limited public funding., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of free sperm plasma DNA (f-spDNA) and sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF), in semen specimens from men undergoing in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET) treatments. Fifty-five semen samples were evaluated during 55 consecutive IVF/ICSI-ET cycles. F-spDNA was determined by conventional quantitative real-time PCR-Sybr green detection approach, while evaluation of sperm DNA damage was performed using the sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) assay. While f-spDNA only correlated with total sperm count, SDF correlated with many semen parameters (including sperm concentration, total sperm count and the per cent of non-progressive sperm). Neither SDF nor the proportion of sperm with small or no halos correlated with f-spDNA. Interestingly, smoking status correlated with f-spDNA but not with SDF. Although these two factors seem to interact for the prediction of pregnancy, receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) analysis revealed that SDF had a stronger predictive value (AUC = 0.7, p < 0.05) than f-spDNA (AUC = 0.6, p > 0.05). SDF and f-spDNA may not be associated together but they interact at a significant level in order to exert their actions on pregnancy outcome. Among the two markers, SDF appears to have stronger and significantly predictive value for pregnancy success.