The Penetration of Antibody-Covered Spermatozoa into Cervical Mucus and Egg White

Abstract

Autoantibodies to sperm membrane antigens may cause infertility in men. The antibodies can often be revealed in seminal plasma and the antifertility effect seems mainly to be due to hampered penetration into cervical mucus of antibody-covered spermatozoa. Recently, egg white has been used instead of cervical mucus in penetration tests. We have, therefore, compared the concentration of sperm autoantibodies in serum and seminal plasma to the ability of spermatozoa to penetrate into cervical mucus and egg white, respectively. With sperm from ten normospermic men with antibodies to sperm there was a correlation between the maximal penetration in the two different media and the cases with poor penetration were equally well revealed in cervical mucus and egg white. Penetration experiments with normal spermatozoa, treated with selected antibody-containing sera confirmed that the penetration-inhibiting effect of autoantibodies is revealed in egg white. Thus, the use of egg white in penetration tests can be of value in evaluation of cases with immunological infertility.

Key Words:

• Spermatozoa
• Antibodies
• Mucus
• Egg white