Detection of anti-sperm antibodies in serum, seminal plasma and cervical mucus by the immunobead test

Abstract

Anti-sperm antibodies in serum and seminal plasma were detected by means of an indirect immunobead test (IBT). Immunobeads with separate specificites for each immunoglobulin class (IBT-IgG, IBT-IgM, and IBT-IgA) were used. Semen parameters were controlled in all sperm donors and Biggers-Whitten-Whittingham (BWW) medium supplemented with human serum albumin (HSA) was used to increase sperm motility. This technique was tested with high titre anti-human sperm sera induced in rabbits. Sperm tails showed a good response by IBT. We included in this study 178 men and 35 women evaluated for infertility and the sera were also tested by the Tray Agglutination Test (TAT). Although the presence of semen markers such as agglutination or trembling of spermatozoa is meaningful even by itself, the percentage of anti-sperm antibodies was increased in the patients with markers, both using IBT (21.4%) and using TAT (35.7%). At high titres of specific immunoglobulins (rabbit antisera and vasectomized men), the correlation between IBT and TAT techniques was better than in sera with very low titres, in which more positive TAT's were detected.

Prevalence of Antisperm Antibodies in Asthenospermic Infertile Male

“…Once the barrier is broken immune cells are able to detect the presence of sperm due to their unique antigen surface (Andolz et al, 1995), this triggers a response by the immune system to treat sperm as an "invader" and attack it, antibodies then attach themselves to different parts of the sperm and interfere with male fertility in a number of ways (Ayvaliotis et al , 1995) antibodies that are located on the tail of sperm can cause the sperm to become immobilized or clump together (Collins et al, 1993), when antibodies are found on the head of sperm they can prevent the sperm from being able to efficiently make its way through a woman's cervical mucus to the egg , however it is also possible for a woman to develop antisperm antibodies in her cervical mucus, which will serve to hinder attempts at conception even more (Jarow et al, 2002).…”