Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25591971›Full record

ArticleJournal of nanobiotechnology2015

The application of scanning near field optical imaging to the study of human sperm morphology.

Laura Andolfi, Elisa Trevisan, Barbara Troian, Stefano Prato, Rita Boscolo, Elena Giolo, Stefania Luppi, Monica Martinelli, Giuseppe Ricci, Marina Zweyer

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of nanobiotechnology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
1.6field-weighted citation impact, top 17% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Laura AndolfiIOM-CNR, Area Science Park, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy. andolfi@iom.cnr.it.
Elisa TrevisanDepartment of Life Sciences University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. etrevisan@units.it.
Barbara TroianA.P.E. Research Srl, AREA Science Park, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy. barbara.troian@aperesearch.com.
Stefano PratoA.P.E. Research Srl, AREA Science Park, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy. stefano.prato@aperesearch.com.
Rita BoscoloInstitute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy. boscolo@burlo.trieste.it.
Elena GioloInstitute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy. elena.giolo@burlo.trieste.it.
Stefania LuppiInstitute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy. stefania.luppi@burlo.trieste.it.
Monica MartinelliInstitute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy. monica_martinelli@hotmail.it.
Giuseppe RicciInstitute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy. giuseppe.ricci@burlo.trieste.it.
Marina ZweyerDepartment of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. zweyer@units.it.
IRCCS Materno Infantile Burlo Garofolo · ITAREA Science Park · ITUniversity of Trieste · IT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe morphology of spermatozoa is a fundamental aspect to consider in fertilization, sperm pathology, assisted reproduction and contraception. Head, neck, midpiece, principal and terminal part of flagellum are the main sperm components to investigate for identifying morphological features and related anomalies. Recently, scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM), which belongs to the wide family of nanoscopic techniques, has opened up new routes for the investigation of biological systems. SNOM is the only technique able to provide simultaneously highly resolved topography and optical images with a resolution beyond the diffraction limit, typical of conventional optical microscopy. This offers the advantage to obtain complementary information about cell surface and cytoplasmatic structures.

resultsIn this work human spermatozoa both healthy and with morphological anomalies are analyzed by SNOM, to demonstrate the potentiality of such approach in the visualization of sperm morphological details. The combination of SNOM topography with optical (reflection and transmission) images enables to examine typical topographic features of spermatozoa together with underlying cytoplasmic structures. Indeed the head shape and inner components as acrosome and nucleus, and the organization of mitochondria in the midpiece region are observed. Analogously for principal tract of the tail, the ridges and the columns are detected in the SNOM topography, while their internal arrangement can be observed in the corresponding SNOM optical transmission images, without requiring specific staining procedures or invasive protocols.

conclusionsSuch findings demonstrate that SNOM represents a versatile and powerful tool to describe topographical and inner structural details of spermatozoa simultaneously. This analysis could be helpful for better characterizing several morphological anomalies, often related to sperm infertility, which cannot be examined by conventional techniques all together.

Indexed as

AzoospermiaEquipment DesignHumansImage Processing, Computer-AssistedMaleMicroscopyOptical FibersSpermatozoa

Identifiers

PMID25591971
PMCPMC4302611
OpenAlexW2072322164

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.