A retrospective study on sperm cryopreservation in 1034 patients diagnosed with cancer in southern China.

Sperm cryopreservation is an effective fertility preservation method for cancer patients before anticancer treatments. However, there are little data on fertility preservation in large cohorts of patients with cancer in southern China. This retrospective cross-sectional study aimed to assess the fertility preservation status of 1034 newly diagnosed male patients with cancer in the Human Sperm Bank of Guangdong Province in southern China (Guangzhou, China). Of these, 302 patients had reproductive system tumors, mostly testicular cancers (99.0%), and 732 had other tumors, including lymphoma (33.1%), gastrointestinal cancer (16.3%), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (15.7%), leukemia (7.7%), sarcoma (3.6%), and others (23.6%). Patients with reproductive system tumors had lower sperm concentration and prefreezing and post-thawing progressive motility than those with non-reproductive system tumors (all P < 0.001). Differences in sperm concentration, progressive motility, and normal morphology rate were observed between patients with and without anticancer surgery before sperm cryopreservation (all P < 0.05). As of April 30, 2022, 63 patients used their cryopreserved sperm for assisted reproductive technology treatments and 39 pregnancies were achieved. This study provides valuable data on the fertility preservation status in newly diagnosed cancer patients in southern China, demonstrating that patients with reproductive system tumors had poor sperm quality for their pretreatment fertility preservation.

[Role of full-time nurses in reception of sperm donors in the sperm bank].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the necessity of reception of sperm donors by full-time nurses in the sperm bank by analyzing the efficiency of sperm donation before and after staffing Guangdong Sperm Bank (GSB) with full-time nurses. METHODS: We selected 9 712 qualified sperm donors in GSB from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2021 and compared the efficiency of sperm donation before and after staffing GSB with full-time nurses. RESULTS: After staffing GSB with full-time nurses, the proportion of qualified sperm donors screened from the quasi-qualified ones was dramatically increased from 66.2% (1 230/1 858) to 77.1% (3 252/4 218) (P < 0.01), that of HIV re-examinees after 6-month suspension from sperm donation increased from 84.6% (137/162) to 93.4% (599/641) (P < 0.01), and that of the candidate donors lost to follow-up during the screening period decreased from 23.2% (831/3 583) to 21.3% (1 308/6 129) (P = 0.034). CONCLUSION: After Guangdong Sperm Bank was staffed with full-time nurses for reception of sperm donors, the proportion of the candidate donors lost to follow-up was reduced and the efficiency of sperm donation was significantly improved. Individualized psychological intervention for the sperm donors by the nurses could dispel the worries of the donors and improve the compliance and efficiency of sperm donation.

Monolayer behavior of silica particles at air/water interface: a comparison between chemical and physical modifications of surface.

Silica particles are hydrophobized either by chemical graft of alkyl chains or by physical adsorption of cationic surfactants, alkyltrimethylammonium bromide. The effects of the two modification methods on the monolayer behavior of silica particles at the air/water interface are studied, as well as the packing structure of the particulate films. The results show that the hydrophobicity of particles chemically modified by octanol (SiO2-C8) and dodecanol (SiO2-C12) are similar and higher than that modified by butanol (SiO2-C4). The monolayer composed of particles with higher hydrophobicity shows a large lift-off area, higher compressibility, and significant hysteresis due to the higher particle-particle interaction. As a result, the particulate films exhibit 2-dimensional (2D) aggregative domains of closely-packed structure, but with particle free regions presenting among the domains. The monolayer prepared by SiO2-C4 shows a contrary behavior resulted from the higher particle-water interaction. The particles modified by adsorption of cationic surfactants have an amphiphilic property at the air/water interface. Such monolayer exhibits lower compressibility and hysteresis, higher re-spreading characteristic, and a lower collapse pressure compared with those of the chemically modified particles. A particulate film with high uniformity and closely-packed structure can be obtained by using the octyltrimethylammonium bromide (OTAB) modified particles. When the alkyl chain of surfactant increases, the packing of the particles becomes looser. Such phenomenon is probably caused from the higher probability for the long-chain surfactants to stay at the air/water interface which obstructs the intimate contact of particles.