Sperm Nuclear DNA Oxidation: What to Be Afraid of? From Lab Models to the Clinic

Normal embryo development as well as the health of the progenyare partly dependent on gamete nuclear integrity. If spermDNA fragmentation that could be partly due to oxidative nuclearalterations is known to impact reproductive success, noone ever considers the impact of mild sperm DNA oxidativedamage. To analyze this situation, we have developed mousemodels that display some level of post-testicular sperm DNAoxidative damage. The data presented will first focus on whymammalian spermatozoa are susceptible to DNA oxidation, andwhere these oxidative alterations are located in the mouse andin the human sperm nucleus and chromosomes. In addition, preliminarydata will show that beside base oxidative alterationsthe sperm epigenetic information (with a particular focus onsperm DNA methylation status and the small non-coding RNAsperm pool) may be affected by post-testicular oxidative stress.