Differential impact of four sperm preparation techniques on sperm motility, morphology, DNA fragmentation, acrosome status, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial activity: A prospective study

Background Suboptimal human semen handling in vitro may induce sperm damage. However, the effects of semen swim‐up, pellet swim‐up, density gradient, and density gradient followed by SU on sperm motility, morphology, DNA fragmentation, acrosome reaction, intracellular reactive oxygen species, and mitochondrial activity were not fully understood. Objectives To study the impact of four sperm preparation techniques on sperm functional parameters. Materials and methods This study was conducted on 60 infertile men with a minimum sperm concentration of 20 × 106/ml and total sperm motility of ≥30%. Each raw semen sample was divided into four aliquots. Each aliquot was prepared by one of the tested techniques. Various sperm characteristics were assessed before and after sperm preparation. Results Density gradient and density gradient followed by SU resulted in significantly higher DNA fragmentation percentages compared with semen swim‐up (p