Comparison of three sperm preparation media

Objective-In assisted reproduction, spermatozoa must be effectively separat ed from seminal plasma to undergo capacitation, a prerequisite for fertiliz ation. Percoll was recently withdrawn from the American market because of s afety concerns. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of sp erm separated by two different sperm washing media, and compare these resul ts to sperm quality after separation on a Percoll (Perwash(TM)) gradient. M aterials and Methods-Semen samples from 10 normozoospermic men were compare d after separation on three media: Perwash(TM), a Percoll-type medium (Conc eption Technologies, La Jolla, CA), ISolate(TM) (Irvine Scientific, Santa A na, CA), and SpermFertil(TM) (Embryotech Laboratories, Wilmington, MA). Sem en characteristics examined were: sperm count, percentage motility, curvili near velocity, lateral head displacement, percentage recovery of motile spe rm, viability, hypo-osmotic swelling, and penetration in bovine cervical mu cus. Sperm morphology was scored using World Health Organization and Kruger 's strict criteria. The motility of the sperm was examined at one-hour inte rvals for three hours to determine which method produced samples with the l ongest period of motility. Results-Total motile sperm count, motility, curv ilinear velocity, and percentage of normal morphological forms as determine d by the WHO method were significantly lower in specimens prepared by Sperm Fertil than in ISolate or Perwash specimens (P < .05). Tail abnormalities w ere significantly more frequent in specimens prepared by SpermFertil than i n ISolate and Perwash specimens (P < .001). Percentage recovery of motile s perm was significantly higher in ISolate and Perwash specimens than in Sper mFertil specimens (P < .05). Semen characteristics were similar in specimen s prepared with ISolate and with Perwash. At all time intervals, sperm moti lity was higher in ISolate and Perwash specimens than in SpermFertil specim ens (P < .001). Conclusion-Sperm samples separated with a SpermFertil colum n have poorer sperm quality in several respects than samples prepared with ISolate or Perwash. This finding and the similarity between ISolate and Per coll procedures suggests that ISolate is a good alternative to Percoll-type media to prepare sperm for assisted reproduction.