EVALUATION OF THE IRRITATIVE PROPERTIES O F CHEMICALS IN A SEMEN MODEL

A predictive method to evaluate the irritative effects of industrial p roducts in vitro is described in this study. The principle of the meth od is based upon the estimation of the alterations of sperm motility a nd the integrity of plasma membrane. The motility was determined by th e sperm motility efficiency index (SME) and the integrity of the plasm a membrane was evaluated by the percentage of eosine-stained spermatoz oa in a supravital staining technique. Spermatozoa of man, bull, and r am were compared with each other. Bull spermatozoa seemed most suitabl e for the planned experiments. Cryo-preserved bull semen samples were incubated with various concentrations of six irritants (desinfectants) and with control solutions. The toxicity of the irritants was estimat ed by spermatological alterations. Categories, which were proposed, en able a rough classification and a comparison with other test systems, eg, guinea pig test and epicutaneous test on humans. A good agreement of the categories of toxicity determined by the various methods was ob served The SME can be recommended as a screening method to estimate ir ritative effects of industrial products. The described in vitro test i s simple, valid, effective and quick.