Immunologic Aspects of Human Infertility

Abstract

Blood sera of 148 infertile patients from the Tyler Clinic was sent to the Bombay laboratory for examination. The macroscopic agglutination technique by Kibrick et al was used for examination of sperm agglutinin. 16 of these samples contained autoagglutinins and 14 isoagglutinins. 220 samples of sera were collected from infertile patients of the Family Welfare Bureau in Bombay. Of these 20 contained autoagglutinins and 17 had isoagglutinins. 3 of the 50 female fertile sera examined with the semen of Donor 1 were +. No + reactions were observed when these sera were tested with semen of other donors. 17 (11.6%) of 146 infertile female specimens tested had + reactions with semen specimens from Donor 1 as compared to 3 with sperm from Donor 2. The results were negative in another group of 132 infertile female sera similarly tested. 18 + reactions among the infertile male specimens (12.2%) were observed with Donor 1; 6 (4.0%) with Donor 2 and 3 (2.3%) with Donor 3. 4+ reactions were noted in the prenatal sera examined but when retested with semen from another donor the results were negative. Autoagglutinins or isoagglutinins were found in 18% of 368 infertile sera when the hemagglutination technique was used to detect sperm agglutinins in blood sera. Sera of unmarried females did not exhibit detectable levels of agglutinins nor did those of married couples whose blood were obtained just before or soon after conception.