ADENOSINE-TRIPHOSPHATE AND MOTILITY CHARACTERISTICS AF FRESH AND CRYOPRESERVED HUMAN SPERMATOZOA

The concentration of ATP and the motility of human spermatozoa was mea sured in fresh and cryopreserved cells from the same 15 ejaculates. No coherent picture of the relationship between motility and ATP concent ration emerged in whole semen or in spermatozoa washed by repeated cen trifugation and resuspension in Biggers Whitten and Whittingham medium . This may have been due to the presence of dead spermatozoa and conta minating cells. After preparation on a Percoll gradient, the ATP conce ntration in fresh and cryopreserved spermatozoa was the same (6+/-0.7 nmol/10(8) spermatozoa) but 85+/-2.5% of the fresh spermatozoa were pr ogressively motile with an average path velocity of 55+/-3.5 mu m/s co mpared to corresponding values of 33+/-5.3% and 44+/-3.4 mu m/s in fro zen/thawed spermatozoa. This suggests that the poor motility of cryopr eserved spermatozoa does not result from deficient ATP production. No relationship was found between ATP concentration and the ability of mo tile spermatozoa in the ejaculate to survive freezing.