Adenosine Triphosphate Levels in Human Spermatozoa

Abstract

ATP levels in human spermatozoa have been positively correlated with good motility. This has given rise to the impression that good ATP levels per se are related to good motility, i.e., the higher the ATP level, the better the motility and fertilizing potential. There was no direct correlation between motility percentage, forward progression, viability percentage, and ATP levels (when expressed per 1 million spermatozoa) in the general population. This finding was not unexpected since other factors, such as defects of the microtubules and viscosity of the semen, could affect the motility in some patients. However, when semen from individual patients was assessed, the motility percent, viability, and ATP concentration decreased by comparable levels over a 4-h period postejaculation. Semen samples with normal counts of spermatozoa (<20 × 10⁶/ml) had higher levels of ATP than samples from patients with oligozoospermia. Spermatozoa from patients whose semen contained <0.60 × 10⁻² nmol ATP/1 million spermatozoa showed a rapid drop in motility over a 4-h period compared with semen samples where the motility remained above 10% motile over this period, the latter samples having ATP levels averaging 3.30 × 10⁻² nmol/1 million spermatozoa.

Key Words:

• ATP
• Human spermatozoa
• Biochemistry