Assisted reproduction for infertile patients with 9+0 immotile spermatozoaassociated with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease

We investigated the clinical feature of patients with totally immotile sper matozoa due to 9 + 0 ultrastructural flagellar defects and polycystic kidne y disease. We also tried to establish the feasibility of applying modern as sisted reproduction technology (ART) in these patients. During 6-year inter val a total of 1956 Japanese men were referred to the male infertility clin ic. Of them, 16 were diagnosed to have immotile spermatozoa and four of the m exhibited axonemal 9 + 0 defects in the sperm flagella, These four also h ad autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), Intrauterine insem ination (IUI) and conventional in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer f ailed to achieve fertilization. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) wit h 100% immotile spermatozoa was performed in all four cases. Two-pronuclear fertilization was obtained in 27 of the 70 (38.6%) of the successfully inj ected oocytes, but no pregnancy resulted. In one case, a few motile spermat ozoa were present at the second cycle of ICSI, a pregnancy was successfully achieved using these spermatozoa, While immotile spermatozoa from patients with the axonemal 9 + 0 defect achieved fertilization by ICSI, the embryos failed to develop. Our results indicate that the central microtubules may play a role in fetal development. Since the 4 patients with 9 + 0 defects a lso had ADPKD, the genetic linkage between these two conditions should be s tudied by molecular biological methods so as to aid our ability to counsel such patients.