Sperm vacuoles are not modified by freezing--thawing procedures.

Since the development of the motile sperm organellar morphology examination (MSOME) in 2001 for observing the cephalic vacuoles at high magnification, no study as yet assessed the effect of cryopreservation on these vacuoles, although sperm freezing-thawing procedures are known to affect sperm quality. Examination of the vacuoles before and after freezing-thawing would indicate whether the same normality criteria can be applied for frozen as for fresh spermatozoa when performing intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection. In 27 sperm samples from fertile men, analysis of conventional sperm parameters (motility, vitality, percentage of normal forms) and a morphological analysis at high magnification (×6000) using image analysis software was performed before freezing and after thawing. Whereas there were expected decreases in motility (P<0.0001), vitality (P<0.001) and percentage of normal forms (P<0.05) after cryopreservation, there was no evidence for any difference in any vacuolar criteria (relative vacuole area, total vacuole area, vacuole area in the anterior, median and basal parts of the head, percentage of spermatozoa with a vacuole area ≤6.5% and percentage of spermatozoa with a vacuole area >13%). Freezing-thawing procedures have no effect on human sperm vacuoles.