{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T11:06:07Z","timestamp":1789383967373,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,19]],"date-time":"2024-04-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1713484800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Union-NextGenerationEU-National Recovery and Resilience Plan","award":["ECS00000017-CUP B83C22003920001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ECS00000017-CUP B83C22003920001"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Several clinical laboratories assess sperm DNA fragmentation (sDF) in addition to semen analysis in male infertility diagnosis. Among tests evaluating sDF, TUNEL (Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling) and SCD (Sperm Chromatin Dispersion) are widely used. Our lab developed a modified version of TUNEL (TUNEL\/PI) able to distinguish two sperm populations (PI Brighter and PI Dimmer) differently associated with sperm viability and reproductive outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare sDF levels detected by SCD and TUNEL\/PI in the semen samples from 71 male subjects attending our Andrology Laboratory. Our results demonstrate that SCD is less sensitive in determining sDF compared to TUNEL\/PI. The statistically significant positive correlation found between sDF evaluated by SCD and PI Dimmer (consisting of all dead spermatozoa) suggests that SCD mainly detects sDF in unviable spermatozoa. We confirmed that most spermatozoa detected by SCD are unviable by performing SCD after incubation in hypo-osmotic medium to discriminate viable and unviable cells in 52 samples. Such results might explain the lower ability of this test in discriminating couples having successful ART outcomes demonstrated in published metanalyses. Overall, our results indicate that SCD is less sensitive in evaluating sDF for diagnostic purposes.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms25084481","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,19]],"date-time":"2024-04-19T04:10:15Z","timestamp":1713499815000},"page":"4481","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["Sperm Chromatin Dispersion Test Detects Sperm DNA Fragmentation Mainly Associated with Unviable Spermatozoa and Underestimates the Values with Respect to TUNEL Assay"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"25","author":[{"given":"Maria Emanuela","family":"Ragosta","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giulia","family":"Traini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences \u201cMario Serio\u201d, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lara","family":"Tamburrino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Andrology, Women\u2019s Endocrinology and Gender Incongruence Unit, Center for Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Infertility, Careggi University Hospital, 50134 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Selene","family":"Degl\u2019Innocenti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Andrology, Women\u2019s Endocrinology and Gender Incongruence Unit, Center for Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Infertility, Careggi University Hospital, 50134 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria Grazia","family":"Fino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Andrology, Women\u2019s Endocrinology and Gender Incongruence Unit, Center for Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Infertility, Careggi University Hospital, 50134 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-2904-7245","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sara","family":"Dabizzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Andrology, Women\u2019s Endocrinology and Gender Incongruence Unit, Center for Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Infertility, Careggi University Hospital, 50134 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0907-0630","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Linda","family":"Vignozzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences \u201cMario Serio\u201d, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy"},{"name":"Andrology, Women\u2019s Endocrinology and Gender Incongruence Unit, Center for Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Infertility, Careggi University Hospital, 50134 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1808-3097","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elisabetta","family":"Baldi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy"},{"name":"Andrology, Women\u2019s Endocrinology and Gender Incongruence Unit, Center for Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Infertility, Careggi University Hospital, 50134 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1057-8626","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sara","family":"Marchiani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences \u201cMario Serio\u201d, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"786","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1745-7262.2008.00417.x","article-title":"Sperm DNA damage in men from infertile couples","volume":"10","author":"Erenpreiss","year":"2008","journal-title":"Asian J. 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