Figure 5.

DNA damage profiling using the automated alkaline HT-COMET. Comet data from individual spermatozoa from selected severe oligozoospermic (A and B), oligozoospermic (C and D) and normozoospermic (E and F) patients were used to produce individual DNA damage profiles as a proposed tool for fertility prognosis. n = 6 wells from one 96-well slide were plotted for each patient. The dark curve identifies the limit of a TEM equal to 10 as a threshold for high damage: every dot above the curve represents a highly damaged cell. The patient number, fertility group, average TEM and percentage of highly damaged cells within the total population of comets (% TEM >10) are indicated above each profile.