Background: There is an association between aging ana an increased number of sperms with alterations in nuclear DNA.
Aim: To study the association between age and fragmentation of sperm DNA.
Material and methods: Sixty two volunteers provided semen for analysis. These were separated in a group aged less than forty years and a second group aged more than forty years. Sperm DNA fragmentation was studied by TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated 2'-deoxyuridine 5'-triphosphate nick end-labeling) and SCD (sperm chromatin dispersion test) assays.
Results: Compared with their younger counterparts, patients aged more than 40 years had a higher proportion of sperms with DNA fragmentation by TUNEL (20 ± 1.3 and 24 ± 1.9% respectively, p < 0.05) and SCD (22 ± 1.4 and 26 ± 1.6% respectively, p < 0.05). The results of both assays had a correlation coefficient of O.8. No differences between groups were observed for other seminal parameters.
Conclusions: Sperm DNA fragmentation increases with age in males.