No abstract

No abstract

The filtration capacity of bovine cervical mucus (BCM), fresh bovine cervical mucus (FBCM) or frozen and thawed bovine mucus (BCMF) was studied, using human-ejaculated spermatozoa in comparison with the properties of human cervical mucus (HCM). Thirty semen specimens of good quality were used in cervical mucus (CM) penetrations, using capillary tubes containing CM of 30 HCM, 77 FBCM and 77 BCMF samples. Spermiocytograms were carried out on semen and cervical mucus at 1st and 3rd centimeter of the capillary tube after one hour of incubation. Smears were stained by Papanicolaou and the patterns of seven forms of sperm cells (normal, tapering, macrocephals, microcephals, pinhead, neck pathology and amorphous cells) were counted on a total of 100 cells in each slide. A clear, highly significant (P less than 0.0001) selection of cells penetrating the CM has been shown, preventing certain abnormal forms from penetrating the CM (macrocephals, neck pathology and amorphous cells) and enabling good penetration of normal sperm forms and moderate penetration of tapering, microcephals and pinhead cells. On the average, a specimen with normal sperm forms of 72% showed a spermiocytogram of 90% normal forms at the 3rd centimeter of migration. The same patterns of filtration were recorded in all the three sources of CM. It is suggested that BCM be used as a filter towards abnormal sperm forms in a highly teratozoospermic ejaculate in order to improve its quality for artificial inseminations.

In vitro penetration tests of human sperm into cervical mucus were introduced in order to study the interaction between sperm and cervical mucus. In the present study the correlation between sperm velocity and penetration value has been assessed. 197 semen samples were run in the in vitro penetration test using semen of different qualities and cervical mucus of good quality. No differences were found either between sperm velocity in cervical mucus (17.3 ± 0.9 µm/s) and in semen (19.9 ± 0.8 µm/s) or at different distances measured along the flat capillary tube (1,2 and 3 cm). A highly significant correlation was found between sperm velocity and penetration value rates (p < 0.0001, r = 0.9). Thus, sperm velocity in semen is a variable of great importance in the assessment of the quality of the ejaculate.

A method is described for improving the quality of semen from subfertile men. Semen samples were filtered through bovine cervical mucus (collected at estrus) into spermatozoa‐free seminal plasma (from the same ejaculate following centrifugation, or from azoospermic donor ejaculates). Evaluations were performed after 2 to 4 hours of filtration at 34 C. The filtered spermatozoa found in the seminal plasma reservoir were characterized by a significant increase in the percentage of morphologically normal spermatozoa, higher sperm motility, and a higher percentage of living sperm. Sperm density was in the range deemed adequate for fertility. After filtration into human cervical mucus, sperm penetration tests were performed with good results, which could be improved by the addition of caffeine to the semen. This method was found to be reliable and to enable the use of the filtered spermatozoa for insemination (AIH).