CHYMOTRYPSIN-GALACTOSE TREATMENT OF SPERM WITH ANTISPERM ANTIBODIES RESULTS IN IMPROVED PREGNANCY RATES FOLLOWING IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION

PROBLEM: To determine if chymotrypsin-galactose (CG) treatment of sper m bound with antisperm antibodies (ASA) improves pregnancy rates (PRs) following in vitro fertilization (IVF). METHOD: Patients with >50% AS A who failed to conceive despite six intrauterine insemination (IUI) c ycles were included. Initially the sperm treatments were randomized wi th CG vs culture medium; subsequently only CG treatment was used.RESUL TS: There was a significantly lower fertilization rate in those patien ts inseminated with sperm incubated in culture medium vs CG (27% vs 47 %, P<.05 t-test). Similarly, a higher percentage of patients receiving culture medium treatment of sperm had failed fertilization (45%) comp ared to CG (11%). Though the clinical PRs were higher with CG (21%) th an medium (9.5%), there was no statistical difference. CONCLUSIONS: Th ough the percentage of sperm bound with antibodies are not reduced, we hypothesize that the CG treatment improves fertility by possibly miti gating the antagonistic action of these antibodies.