Evaluation of Circulating Anti‐Sperm Antibodies in Fertile and Patient Populations

Abstract

Several reports have demonstrated the presence of anti-sperm antibodies (ASA) in infertile populations; however there is a paucity of information regarding ASA in fertile populations. The purpose of this study was to establish objective criteria for the interpretation of the Immunobead Binding Test (IBT) based on values obtained from fertile individuals. Sera from 20 fertile couples (n = 40) were assayed by using a modification of the IBT previously described by Clarke et al. An initial lower limit of binding for positivity (lower limit) of 14% was used based upon the mean value for each isotype plus 2 standard deviations (SD) of 4 negative control sera assayed 4 to 7 times each. One-way ANOVA or chi-square analyses were used to analyze these data. There was no difference in percent immunobead binding between males and females in the fertile population (P greater than 0.1); therefore the data were pooled. Percent binding for fertile controls was: IgG, 21.7 + 31.9% (mean + SD); IgA, 19.5 + 25.8%; IgM, 16.9 + 14.9%. Initial analysis indicated no significant difference (P greater than 0.10) in percent binding between fertile and infertile individuals. The corresponding frequency of positive values (for at least one isotype) using a 14% lower limit was 23/40 (57.5%). This was not significantly different (P greater than 0.1) from the frequency observed in the patient population (140/242, 57.8%). New lower limits of positivity for each isotype were established based upon the mean plus 2 SD from the fertile control data: IgG, 85.4%; IgA, 71.1%; IgM, 46.7%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)