Mh. Vazquezlevin et al., MALE IMMUNOLOGICAL INFERTILITY - SPERM PERFORMANCE ON IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION, Fertility and sterility, 68(4), 1997, pp. 675-681
Objective: To analyze sperm performance in a group of patients with ma
le immunologic infertility treated with IVF-ET. Design: Retrospective
clinical study. Setting: Patients attending a private IVF clinic. Pati
ent(s): The study group comprised seven men with significant levels of
surface-bound antisperm antibodies treated in nine IVF cycles. The co
ntrol group comprised nine couples with female tubal infertility and n
o indication of male factor infertility treated on the same cycle. Int
ervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): Fertilization rate, early
embryonic development, implantation, and clinical pregnancy rate (PR)
. Result(s): Forty-six (44.2%) of 104 inseminated oocytes were fertili
zed in the study group compared with 65 (84.4%) of 77 in the control g
roup, which was a significant difference. Surface-bound antisperm anti
bodies significantly inhibited early embryonic cleavage in the study g
roup (13 [28.3%] of 46 embryos with at least 3 blastomeres) compared w
ith the control group (41 [63.1%] of 65 embryos, with at least 3 blast
omeres). The percentage of good-quality embryos (grades 1 and 2) was s
imilar in the study and control groups (71.7% and 78.5%, respectively)
. The percentage of poor-quality embryos (grade 4 and two pronuclei) w
as higher in the study group compared with the control group (13.9% ve
rsus 9.2%, respectively); however, the difference was not significant.
The implantation rate and clinical PR were lower in the study group (
3% and 11%, respectively) compared with the control group (9.5% and 44
%, respectively), but the difference was not statistically significant
. Conclusion(s): The fertilization rate and early embryonic cleavage o
f human embryos was found to be reduced significantly in patients with
high levels of surface-bound antisperm antibodies. Moreover, embryoni
c quality and the PR may be compromised by the presence of significant
levels of surface-bound antisperm antibodies. (C) 1997 by American So
ciety for Reproductive Medicine.