Evaluation of sperm DNA fragmentation and chromatin structure in infertile men with immotile short‐tail sperm defect

Teratozoospermia is characterised by the presence of spermatozoa with abnormal morphology. One of the morphological disorders that lead to male infertility is immotile short‐tail sperm (ISTS) defect. In this study, we evaluated the levels of chromatin packing and DNA fragmentation in patients with immotile short‐tail sperm defect. Semen samples were obtained from 31 infertile men with ISTS as case group and 31 normozoospermic men as a control group. Protamine status was evaluated using chromomycin A3 (CMA3) staining and sperm DNA fragmentation assessed by sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase‐mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate biotin nick‐end labelling (TUNEL). The percentage of positive CMA3 spermatozoa was significantly higher in patients’ samples (22.6 ± 6.9) compared with controls (16.3 ± 4.2) (p