STUDY OF DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF SPERMATO ZOAL FUNCTION AFTER IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION FAILURE

The fertilizing potential of sperm depends on numerous properties whic h influence its functional competence. In order to understand the caus es of IVF failure, we studied some of these properties-movement charac teristics, hyperactivated motility, acrosome reaction-for infertile sp erm (0 % in vitro fertilization) and compared to those of fertile sper m (greater than or equal to 50 % fertilization, control group). Moveme nt characteristics, assessed by videomicrographic analysis, are signif icantly different for the 2 groups: infertile sperm register the lowes t values for motility characteristics and hyperactivation. The additio n of ionophore A23187 to the medium improves the hyperactivation and t he acrosome reaction, the values for the latter however, remain signif icantly lower compared to the control. These results are in favor of a detailed study of motility and induced acrosome reaction as complemen t for the diagnosis of male infertility.