Cumulus cells around human oocyte are composed mainly of hyaluronan which has been postulated to be important fort he choice of healthy sperm for fertilization. Sperm quality is relevant to its capacity of binding to the hyaluronan. Thus, HBA arised.
How is it applied?
10 microliters of semen is used for HBA. Semen is left for 10-20 minutes and percentage of sperms binding to hyaluronan is evaluated. A HBA score is calculated.
Is it efficient?
Recent studies proved that sperms with a poor morphology have lower HBA scores as compared to normal sperms. Thus, HBA provides information about severity of male infertility.
HBA has been used only for diagnostic purposes up to now. No study comparing classical ICSI and HBA-ICSI has been performed up to now.
Only animal studies have been performed in this subject. A study compared classical ICSI and HBA-ICSI, and found lower aneuploidy rates for the HBA-ICSI group.
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