Antisperm antibodies in infertile men and their correlation with seminal parameters

Abstract

Antisperm antibodies (ASA) in males cause the autoimmune disease 'immune infertility'. The present study intended to detect the presence of ASA and their incidence in men with unexplained infertility, as well as to evaluate the correlation between the presence of ASA and semen parameter alterations. Blood and sperm assessment were collected to carry out a direct and indirect mixed antiglobulin reaction (MAR) test and semen analysis in infertile and fertile men from the University Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine, Sao Paulo State University, Sao Paulo. In the MAR test, 18.18% of infertile men were positive for ASA. In fertile men, no positivity was found. A significant correlation between the presence of ASA with an increased white blood cell count plus a decreased hypoosmotic swelling test result was observed. The results indicate that ASA are involved in reduced fertility. It is not ASA detection that provides conclusive information about the occurrence of damage to fertility. The correlation between infertility and altered seminal parameters reinforce the ASA participation in this pathology. (Reprod Med Biol 2007; : 33-38).

Prevalence of anti-sperm antibodies, risk factors associated and their impact on spermatobioscopy in infertile men

“…In the work of Garcia P et al, studying a Latin American population, it was observed that a higher proportion of motile sperm do not have progressive movement but this finding was not significantly associated with anti-sperm antibodies, but found a correlation between positive antisperm antibodies and increase of white blood cells in semen as well as decrease of the hypoosmotic test. 4 Unlike the present work in which the white blood cells in semen and the Hypo-osmotic test did not show the same correlation.…”

“…16 Endocrine disruptors and seminal infection that interfere with the synthesis, storage, release, transport of sperm responsible for the regulation of homeostasis and the process of development can lead to compromised fertility. 4 However, in present study, endocrinological characteristics were compared somatometric and infectious of both groups without finding significant difference between the groups in any of the characteristics achieving with this, 2 homogeneous groups to compare the alterations in spermatobioscopy.…”

“…2,[11][12][13][14] Leushuis E et al, in his work that included 1794 infertile marriages, a positive anti-sperm antibody test was detected in 3% and Garcia PC et al, in 18.1%. 4,15 Using lower cut-off points, a small difference in the detection rate of anti-sperm antibodies could appear, however its clinical effects on patients' fertility status would probably be negligible. 16 Endocrine disruptors and seminal infection that interfere with the synthesis, storage, release, transport of sperm responsible for the regulation of homeostasis and the process of development can lead to compromised fertility.…”

The Prognostic Value of Seminal Anti-Sperm Antibodies Screening in Men Prepared for ICSI: A Call to Change the Current Antibody-directed Viewpoint of Sperm Autoimmunity Testing.

“…Studies conducted by other investigators agree with our results regarding the negative effect of ASA on sperm concentration, which may be explained by the fact that antibodies stick to the sperm surface inducing sperm cytotoxicity and apoptosis, and enhancing sperm phagocytosis, collectively declining sperm concentration [20]. Although some studies supported our results regarding the negative effect of ASA on sperm motility, simply due to slowing down the sperm by joining of antibodies to the sperm tail [25], other investigators did not nd any correlation between the existence of ASA and sperm motility [26]. The heterogeneity of the localization of the targeted antigen and its relevance to motility may explain the discrepancy between different studies.…”

Assessment of antisperm antibodies in a sample of Egyptian patients with hepatitis C virus infection

“…Exclusion criteria included azoospermia and severe oligozoospermia (<5 × 10 6 sperm/ml) (Coppola et al., ), patients with known conditions linked with ASA production (Walsh & Turek, ), patients with diagnosed autoimmune diseases, patients with clinical or sonographic evidence of varicocele, history testicular surgery, testicular torsion, epididymo‐orchitis, cryptorchidism (Mazumdar & Levine, ) and leucocytospermia (Garcia, Rubio, & Pereira, ). Smokers (Ludwikowski et al., ) and patients with known fertility problems were also excluded from the study.…”