CORRELATION OF ASTHENOZOOSPERMIA WITH INCREASED ANTISPERM CELL-MEDIATED-IMMUNITY IN MEN FROM INFERTILE COUPLES

To investigate whether cell-mediated immunity (CMI) against sperm and/ or antisperm circulating antibodies are associated with poor semen qua lity, a leukocyte migration inhibition factor (LMIF) assay and an enzy me-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were performed in groups of men from infertile couples, men from fertile couples and sperm donors. Twe nty-five of 102 men (25%) revealed positive CMI against sperm and 10 ( 10%) had positive antisperm antibody titers in their sera. Fifteen of 28 asthenozoospermic men (53%) from infertile couples revealed positiv e antisperm CMI. The incidence of antisperm CMI was significantly incr eased (P < 0.05) in the infertile men with asthenozoospermia compared with the men from the other two groups (men from fertile couples and s perm donors). No significant differences between migration indices wer e seen when such a comparison was done for oligoasthenoterato- and ter atozoospermics. The results indicate that increased antisperm CMI is a ssociated with asthenozoospermia in a significant number of men from i nfertile couples. The importance of these findings is discussed.