Chymotrypsin-galactose treatment of sperm with antisperm antibodies results in improved pregnancy rates following in vitro fertilization.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if chymotrypsin-galactose (CG) treatment of sperm bound with antisperm antibodies (ASA) improves pregnancy rates (PRs) following in vitro fertilization (IVF).


METHODS
Patients with > 50% ASA who failed to conceive despite six intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles were included. Initially the sperm treatments were randomized with CG vs culture medium; subsequently only CG treatment was used.


RESULTS
There was a significantly lower fertilization rate in those patients inseminated with sperm incubated in culture medium vs CG (27% vs 47%, P < .05 t-test). Similarly, a higher percentage of patients receiving culture medium treatment of sperm had failed fertilization (45%) compared to CG (11%). Though the clinical PRs were higher with CG (21%) tham medium (9.5%), there was no statistical difference.


CONCLUSIONS
Though the percentage of sperm bound with antibodies are not reduced, we hypothesize that the CG treatment improves fertility by possibly mitigating the antagonistic action of these antibodies.
Katsoff
D
D
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Camden, USA.
Check
J H
JH
Bollendorf
A
A
Benfer
K
K
D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology; D002918:Chymotrypsin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000379:methods*; D005690:Galactose / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000187:drug effects; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology
D001323:Autoantibodies; D002918:Chymotrypsin; D005690:Galactose