Presence of antisperm antibodies in the serum of Sardinian adult people. II. Study on a selected infertile population in north Sardinia.

Among many possible causes of infertility an immunological factor must be considered, in particular the presence of antibodies to spermatozoa in the serum. In previous researches we confirmed the presence of antisperm antibodies in the serum of healthy men of North Sardinia in percentage equal to 2.4% of the considered population. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the correlation between the presence of antisperm antibodies and infertility. The presence of antispermatozoal antibodies has been evaluated in the serum of 124 men (aged 25-50) affected by unexplained infertility utilizing the indirect immunofluorescence and ELISA methods. The presence of antisperm antibodies has been found equal to 19.3% of the tested sera. These results show that the incidence of antisperm antibodies is higher in the serum of male partners from infertile couples than in healthy subjects (P < 0.01), also in a relatively segregated and pure population like the one studied.