Seminal plasma glycodelin and fertilization in vitro

Endometrium-derived glycodelin-A inhibits sperm-egg binding, whereas differ entially glycosylated seminal plasma glycodelin-S does not. The difference has been ascribed to the specific type of glycosylation of glycodelin-A. We studied whether the total glycodelin concentration or the relative glycode lin-A concentration in seminal plasma are related to the in vitro fertiliza tion rate of oocytes. We found that total glycodelin levels were significan tly higher in a quartile of men with the lowest in vitro fertilization rate compared with the remaining 3 quartiles combined (P = .01). However, for p redicting low fertilization capacity of sperm, combining the glycodelin and sperm concentrations by logistic regression analysis did not significantly increase the information obtained from sperm concentration alone. We used specific lectin-immunoassays to determine whether increased glycodelin-A-ty pe glycosylation in seminal plasma would be related to failure to fertilize . No difference was found between the groups with high fertilization and no fertilization in vitro. It is concluded that, although high seminal plasma total glycodelin level has a tendency of being associated with a lower fer tilization rate. the difference has limited value to predict fertilization in vitro.