Sperm acrosin activity and fluorescence microscopic assessment of proacrosin/acrosin in ejaculates of infertile and fertile men. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • OBJECTIVE: To compare biochemically active with immunoreactive sperm acrosin in fertile and infertile men. SETTING: This study was conducted in a tertiary care center, the Andrology Clinic, Department of Internal Medicine, University of L'Aquila. PATIENTS: We evaluated the males in 40 infertile couples with no recognized cause of female infertility and 20 fertile men. INTERVENTIONS: Ejaculates were collected under standardized conditions of abstinence. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Total sperm acrosin activity was measured on a spectrophotometer in washed sperm stored at -80 degrees C for 1 to 6 days. The percent of spermatozoa immunostained by an antiserum against proacrosin/acrosin by indirect immunofluorescence (IFL) was determined on methanol fixed sperm smears. RESULTS: Biochemically active acrosin was correlated to immunoreactive acrosin (P = 0.0028), and both were inversely correlated to the percent of spermatozoa with an abnormal head (P = 0.00024 for acrosin activity and P = 0.0013 for IFL). Biochemically active and immunoreactive acrosin were lower in infertile compared with fertile men (P = 0.0012 and P = 0.0009, respectively). Sixty-eight percent of ejaculates with an acrosin activity lower than the limit value observed in fertile men showed a normal sperm morphology and a normal immunoreactivity for acrosin. CONCLUSIONS: A low sperm acrosin activity in teratospermic ejaculates is because of a lack or a defect of the immunogenic and functional domains of the protein. A low sperm acrosin in infertile men with normal semen parameters results from a possible functional defect of the enzyme that is immunohistochemically detected in spermatozoa.

publication date

  • June 1, 1992

Research

keywords

  • Acrosin
  • Enzyme Precursors
  • Infertility, Male
  • Semen
  • Spermatozoa

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0026751131

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/s0015-0282(16)55093-6

PubMed ID

  • 1601156

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 57

issue

  • 6