CAN THE IMMUNOBEAD ASSAY FOR DETECTING SPERM ANTIBODIES IN FRESH SAMPLES BE REPRODUCED IN CRYOPRESERVED THAWED HUMAN SPERMATOZOA

PROBLEM: To evaluate the reproducibility of the Immunobead Assay (IBA) on sperm samples before and after cryopreservation. METHOD: Sperm sam ples (fresh and post-thaw) from known antibody negative donors (N=20) were evaluated for percent immunobead binding by IBA following incubat ion with known antibody-positive serum. RESULTS: In both fresh and tha wed negative samples, the mean sperm head binding was 0.5% +/- 0.5, th e mean sperm tail binding was 2.0% +/- 2.0 and the mean sperm head-tai l binding was 3.0% +/- 2.0 for IgG, IgA and IgM type antibodies, respe ctively. The same samples exposed to positive sera showed 40.0% +/- 10 .0 mean head binding, 7.0% +/- 8.0 mean tail binding and 47.0% +/- 11. 0 mean head-tail binding. CONCLUSIONS: IBA is highly reproducible for detecting sperm antibodies in both fresh and cryopreserved/thawed samp les of human spermatozoa.