Abstract

Objective: To determine if fertilization antigen (FA)-1 will remove autoantibodies from the surface of sperm cells of immunoinfertile men by immune adsorption and permit an increased acrosome reaction (AR). Design: Prospective analytic study. Setting: University medical center. Patient(s): Men from 18 infertile couples with autoantibodies present on their spermatozoa. Intervention(s): Sperm samples after processing were examined for antibody binding and AR before and after adsorption with control medium or FA-1. Main Outcome Measure(s): Sperm-bound antibody was assessed by the immunobead assay (immunoglobulin [Ig] A and IgG) and the AR by induction with ionophore A23187. Result(s): Adsorption with FA-1 compared with control medium increased immunobead-free swimming sperm an average of 50% and 76% for IgA and IgG antisperm antibodies, respectively, with 78% and 100% of the 18 semen specimens increasing significantly. The AR rate increased an average of 10.3% compared with control medium and showed improvement in 78% of the sperm samples after FA-1 adsorption. Conclusion(s): The FA-1 sperm antigen appears to significantly free sperm cells coated with autoantibodies in the semen of most infertile men examined. Reducing sperm-bound antibodies that inhibited the AR allowed the sperm cells to undergo successful AR induction by calcium ionophore.

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