RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: The increase of frequency of Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) for elder men raises the question of the genetic risk for the offspring. Our aim was to evaluate the influence of ageing on the testicular histology, the aneuploidy rate in testis postmeiotic cells and the DNA fragmentation in sperm. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a histomorphometric study of 36 men aged from 61 to 102 years and 10 young men from 29 to 40 years. The aneuploidy rate was evaluated by fluorescent in situ hybridation (FISH X, Y, 18) and DNA fragmentation in spermatozoa was evaluated by TUNEL. RESULTS: Histomorphometry showed various alterations of testicular histology with age including thickening of the basal membrane when spermatogenesis was arrested. The number of germinal cells and Sertoli cells decreased with age with important individual variations. Nevertheless spermatogenesis could be possible until 95 years. The rate of aneuploidy was not influenced by age when spermatogenesis was complete. However, we observed an increased aneuploidy rate in postmeiotic cells when spermiogenesis was arrested. On the other hand apoptosis was not increased with age. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our study confirms that spermatogenesis is possible until a very advanced age (95 years) without any specific chromosome risk. The question of mutagenesis remains to be solved.