SPERM VELOCITY IN SEMINAL PLASMA AND THE ASSOCIATION WITH GENDER OF OFFSPRING

Abstract

The gender of the offspring is determined by the fertilizing sperm. Previous gender studies were based on washed sperm, but not on sperm in seminal plasma. The objective was to correlate motility parameters assessed during semen analyses with the offspring gender. For comparison, fixed sperm head DNA quantitated by Hoechst 33342 fluorescence microscopy was also analyzed. Forty-six patients undergoing assisted reproduction procedures resulted in livebirth deliveries with either male or female-predominant offsprings. Sperm head fluorescence was weakly correlated to the gender in 61% of the cases. Sperm of patients with male offsprings had slower curvilinear (44.2 ± 1.8 mean ± SEM, versus, 49.9 ± 2.7 µ/sec) and slower average path velocities (32.4 ± 1.2 versus 36.3±1.7 µ/sec). Using cut-off values for the curvilinear (<49 µ/sec) and average path (<36 µ/sec) velocities of sperm swimming in seminal plasma, the two parameters predicted 75 and 68% of the male offspring births, respectively. The data suggest that sperm movement in seminal plasma is a marker for factors that skew the ratio of the X- to Y-sperm populations.

Keywords:

• spermatozoa
• sex selection
• computer-aided sperm analysis
• fluorochromes