Immunological screening of a male population with infertile marriages

Antisperm antibodies and sperm motility: a study using timed exposure photomicrography

This study examined the effect of antisperm antibodies on sperm motility. Antisperm antibodies present in seminal plasmas with different sperm agglutinating titres were transferred passively to normal donor sperm, and the effects on movement characteristics (velocity of forward progression, amplitude of lateral head displacement, percentage progressive motility and percentage non-progressive motility) were analysed using timed exposure photomicrography. There was no significant association between sperm movement characteristics and the presence of titre of antisperm antibodies in seminal plasma. Furthermore, no differences were detected between those samples that possessed sperm agglutinating versus sperm immobilizing activity. These findings do not support the common belief that antisperm antibodies are a cause of poor sperm motility in semen.

A direct immunofluorescence test for the detection of sperm surface bound antibodies. Comparison with sperm agglutination test, indirect IF test and MAR test

A direct immunofluorescence (DIF) test using sperm suspensions and F (ab')2 antisera was carried out on 30 patients with sperm-agglutinating (SA) activity and on 25 negative controls. Its results were related with the occurrence of SA activity in serum and seminal plasma, with the results of the indirect IF test and those of the direct IgG-MAR test. DIF test gave positive results in all patients with significant serum SA activity, even when it was undetectable in seminal plasma, except in 2 cases with serum IF-reactivity for IgM, and negative results in all controls. IgG were involved in IF-reactivity in 88.4% of positive cases and IgA in 42.3%. IgA were always found in association with sustained SA activity in seminal plasma. In these cases the IgG-MAR test might not result strongly positive, in spite of the high titre of SA activity in semen.