Columns annexin, a new treatment for patients with spermatic fragmented DNA

The experts in reproductive medicine of the Medical Center of Assisted Reproduction CREA have presented the latest advance in reproduction for cases of patients with fragmented sperm DNA. This is the technique known as annexin columns , which allows a specific selection of ejaculated sperm with better options to present their complete DNA, resulting in healthy embryos.

The director of the Department of Andrology of CREA, Dr. Miguel Ruiz Jorro , along with the co-director of CREA, Carmen Calatayud, the scientific adviser of CREA, the prestigious doctor Vanesa Y. Rawe and other components of CREA's reproductive medicine team presented this new technique at the XV National Congress of Andrology, Sexual and Reproductive Medicine.

Dr. Miguel Ruiz Jorro explained that patients with the pathology of fragmentation of sperm DNA have breaks or lesions in the genetic material of the sperm produced by an oxidation of the membranes, which causes failures in conventional treatments of assisted reproduction and even miscarriages. repetition. But using the technique of annexin columns or MACS (Magnetic Activated Cell Sorting - immunomagnetic selection of sperm) - developed by CREA since last year - has already achieved the birth of healthy twins in a couple where there was a failure of implantation and increased sperm DNA fragmentation.

60% get to be parents

In addition, "this technique is safer and more effective than conventional techniques because it allows sperm to be selected with intact DNA (not fragmented), obtaining a greater probability of originating a healthy embryo and with greater capacity for implantation and normal evolutionary development". So much so that, and always according to Dr. Ruiz Jorro, "60% of patients who have fragmented DNA pathology, get to be parents" thanks to this method.

The named technique consists in the immunomagnetic selection of the spermatozoa that present their fragmented DNA from the effect of the magnetic fields, thus obtaining filtered spermatozoa and with a greater probability of being genetically normal. "The technique takes advantage of the fact that sperm with fragmented DNA have a molecule on their surface to which they are attached by particles designed specifically for this purpose: annexins; so that the sperm with these particles stuck to their surface are trapped as they pass through a magnetic field "and" later, the sperm that have not been trapped are used to fertilize the egg of the couple ".

Advantages before other techniques

This new technique is also safer and easier than the conventional methods used until now for this type of patients, such as TESA , which select sperm by sucking them directly from the testicle and not with a simple sample of semen.. For the director of the department of Andrology of CREA techniques such as the TESA "besides being annoying for the patient because they are carried out through a testicular biopsy, perform a non-specific selection, obtaining also more immature sperm than those found in a sample of semen "and" have a higher risk of aneuploidy, a higher number of chromosomal alterations that give rise to embryos with more risk of genetic alteration, "he added.

On the contrary, "with the new technique it is possible to significantly improve the likelihood of getting pregnant by being able to transfer genetically healthy embryos in pairs in which the presence of a high percentage of sperm with their fragmented DNA made previous conventional treatments not I was able to obtain any viable embryo, "says Dr. Ruiz Jorro.