title: Sperm from some infertile men may consist of several populations.
abstract: In the hamster ovum penetration (HOP) test, when ova have equal penetrability and sperm have equal penetrating ability, the distribution of zona-free hamster ova classified by number of penetrating human sperm is expected to follow the Poisson distribution (PD). This study reports tests for PD in HOP tests on 9 infertile patients and 11 normal controls. The data, presented in detail, show the expected PD in the control group. In contrast, 3 patients had HOP tests with definite non-PDs, whereas 5 patients have clearcut PDs. The cause of non-PD is unknown, but could result from differences among motile sperm in penetrating ability.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D013081:Sperm Motility; D013084:Sperm-Ovum Interactions; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000502:physiology*