Background: Patients with poor semen quality show increased sperm disomy and diploidy rates. Oligozoospermia and teratozoospermia are known to influence sperm aneuploidy, but there is still a debate about whether aneuploidies are associated with reduced motility.
Methods: Ejaculates from a large group of patients were examined by light microscopy to evaluate sperm concentration, motility and morphology, and by fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) to analyse the presence of aneuploidies. Statistical analysis was performed to compare differences and to evaluate the relationship between sperm aneuploidy rate and semen quality.
Results: Five groups were established following the motility parameter, and total aneuploidy rates were statistically significantly higher in the groups where motility was <30% compared to the controls. A homogeneous group of men with asthenozoospermia showed higher FISH values compared to control data, although the difference was not statistically significant. Motility and sperm morphology were each found to be statistically related to aneuploidy using a multiple linear regression analysis, whereas sperm concentration was only related to aneuploidy by the equation of a hyperbolic curve.
Conclusions: In conclusion, biological and statistical data from the present research support the idea that the presence of aneuploidies could also be associated with reduced sperm motility.