Report from the International Congress of Andrology (ICA) 2009 Satellite symposium “sperm DNA damage : from Research to clinic”.

Several factors are related to sperm DNA damage and not all mechanism areknown. Multiple sources have been proposed including abortive apoptosis,abnormal chromatin packaging during the transition from round to elongatedspermatids and oxidative stress. Moreover, many enviromental conditionsare related to reproductive toxicity, including structural and functional alterationsof human sperm and particularly sperm DNA damage.Finally, several evidences suggest that infiammation/infection in the male reproductivetract may impair fertility leading to improve of DNA fragmentation.In the last years, several evidences showed like sperm DNA damage may torelated to infertility leading to the insight that the assessment of sperm DNAintegrity could be considered a potential new semen quality biomarker.