An increase in in vitro fertilization ability of low-density human sperm capacitated by multiple-tube swim-up.
Comparison was made of the efficacy of multiple-tube swim-up (MT-SU) and single-tube swim-up (ST-SU) preparations on inducing human sperm fertilization ability in semen samples of less than 60 million motile sperm/ml. Two parallel groups of in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients possessing sperm density of this category had their sperm capacitated by MT-SU or ST-SU. The MT-SU patients' sperm fertilized 71 +/- 6.0% of eggs retrieved in comparison to 39 +/- 7.9% in the parallel ST-SU patients (P less than 0.001). Similarly, MT-SU increased the rate of human sperm penetration into zona-free hamster eggs. The increased fertilization rate of MT-SU sperm was not from acceleration of the acrosome reaction, but may be attributed to the higher efficiency of MT-SU in removing antifertility factors present in the seminal plasma from sperm.
Tanphaichitr
N
N
Harvard Medical School, Dana Biomedical Research Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.
Randall
M
M
Fitzgerald
L
L
Lee
G
G
Seibel
M
M
Taymor
M
M
D000177:Acrosome / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D006224:Cricetinae; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D013075:Sperm Capacitation; D013076:Sperm Count; D013081:Sperm Motility; D013084:Sperm-Ovum Interactions