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Abstract
This investigation was conducted to evaluate whether exposure of human sperm to low calcium enhances the fertilizing ability. When sperm from normal semen samples were preincubated in low-calcium mBWW medium for 1 h, the percentages of live acrosome-reacted sperm after 4 and 6 h of culture were significantly higher than control (5.0 ± 0.5 vs. 3.2 ± 0.3% and 6.0 ± 0.5 vs. 4.2 ± 0.3%, p <. 05). The penetration rate (%P) and fertility index (FI) in zona-free hamster egg sperm penetration assay significantly increased, compared to control (%P: 66.4 ± 9.0 vs. 42.7 ± 8.1%; FI: 1.69 ± 0.19 vs. 1.34 ± 0.11; p <. 01). When low-calcium treatment was used for human in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (1VF-ET) for male infertility, the fertilization and pregnancy rates were significantly higher than those in control. The results indicate that preincubation of human sperm in low-calcium medium enhances their fertilizing ability. This method is a simple and useful for preparing sperm from subfertile men for human IVF-ET.