Fluorescence supravital stain of human sperm: correlation with sperm motility measured by a transmembrane migration method.

We developed a supravital stain of human sperm with fluorescent dyes. Either Hoechst 33,258 or fluorescein isothiocyanate could be used, the former stained sperm head while the later stained the whole sperm. Sperm vitality assessed with any of these two fluorescent dyes correlated well with that determined by eosin-nigrosin counterstain. When sperm vitality was compared with sperm motility measured with a transmembrane migration method, we found that many vital sperm were immotile because sperm vitality was higher than sperm motility in tested samples.